After being accused of desecrating the Quran, a Pakistani Christian couple and their unborn child were beaten by an Islamist mob and thrown into a burning kiln in Punjab province yesterday.
The young couple was accused of blasphemy for supposedly burning Muslim amulets. Multiple sources, however, have stated that no burning of Muslim text or charms occurred.
The mob, compiled of members of surrounding villages, surrounded the kiln in the village of Kot Radhakishan, about 38 miles south of Lahore, and drug the couple out from the room in which they were hiding in order to beat and burn them in the kiln where they both worked.
More than 40 people have been arrested in connection to the crime, according to Pakistani police officials. Among those are the kiln’s owners, according to the police and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
HRCP said that they are “shocked and saddened beyond words by the callous murder of the couple and their unborn child,” according to CNN.
Muhammad bin Yameen, a local police official, said that police attempted to stop the mob, but had been outnumbered, according to Al Jazeera.
Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy laws uphold that desecration of the Quran is punishable by death or life imprisonment.
David Griffiths, Amnesty International’s deputy Asia-Pacific director, said these laws have often been used as cover for mob justice, according to Al Jazeera.
“This vicious mob killing is just he latest manifestation of the threat of vigilante violence which anyone can face in Pakistan after a blasphemy accusation — although religious minorities are disproportionately vulnerable,” he said in a statement to Al Jazeera.
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