A harrowing incident of lynching has emerged from a police station in the Nankana Sahib area in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Against this background, a video of a figure being set on fire as a mob celebrates is viral, claiming that the person being burnt is a Christian man accused of blasphemy.
On February 11, a man was lynched after a crowd broke into the police station in Nankana Sahib. A person accused of blasphemy was dragged outside, killed, and the mob burned his body. Taking notice of the incident, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered an investigation. The Inspector General, Anwar, has suspended Nankana Sahib Circle Deputy Superintendent of Police Nawaz Waraq and Warburton Station House Officer Feroz Bhatti, as per a Dawn report.
Claim:
The viral video shows a body lying spread-eagled on the ground as a person approaches it and lights it up. The body catches on fire, and the mob begins to celebrate.
Major Surendra Poonia shared the video with the claim, “Will BBC show this? NEVER! Waris Issa, a Christian arrested on blasphemy charges in Nankana Sahib of Pakistan. Islamic mob attacked a Police station, dragged him out on the streets & set him on fire with the slogan of Allah-o-Akbar. Pak is HELL for MINORITIES.”
Other users have shared the video with similar claims.
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian Fact Check team verified the viral claim and found it false.
We conducted a keyword search and found a report by The Print published on February 12, 2023. The report noted that a violent mob dragged a man from a police station who was locked up for allegedly committing blasphemy and tortured him to death in Punjab’s Nankana Sahib in Pakistan.
The Print report noted that the residents of the area claimed that the man used to practice witchcraft by pasting his ex-wife’s picture on holy papers. The report also identified the victim as Muhammad Waris and noted that he had been taken into custody for allegedly desecrating the Quran.
We came across a report by Dawn that quoted locals from the Warburton police station area alleging that Waris had defaced pages of The Quran and had thrown them on the street. As the police got wind of the matter, they took the accused into custody, and hundreds gathered outside the police station and forcefully entered the premise to take away the accused.
As per the Dawn report, as the crowd started gathering outside the police, the police immediately locked Waris in the bathroom of the police station. The local mosques even made announcements pleading with the public not to take the law into their hands. An 800-strong mob attacked the police station in an attempt to grab the man. The Dawn report quotes Nankana Sahib District Police Officer (DPO) Asim Iftikhar, who said that 50 police personnel tried to save the man but were outnumbered.
The Dawn report also notes that in days leading up to the lynching, Warburton police received three calls over the alleged desecration of The Quran. The report also adds, “In the last such call, the residents claimed they found the burnt pages of the Holy Quran and a picture of Waris’s ex-wife at the spot.”
We also came across a report by The Guardian published on February 12, 2023, which also noted the victim’s name as Muhammad Waris, who was in his mid-30s.
The Guardian report also quoted a police spokesperson who said, “The angry mob stormed the police station using a wooden ladder, dragged him out, and beat him to death. After lynching, they were still not satisfied and tried to burn his body.”
A BBC report noted that the victim’s name was ‘Waris Ali’ with his mother’s name was Nooran Bibi. As per the report, the mother says that the failure of Waris’ first marriage disturbed him, and he was mentally unstable.
As per the Dawn report, the police teams seized 923 video clips of the incident and identified and arrested 60 suspects.
Conclusion:
We found that a viral claim shared with a video that a Christian man was lynched in Punjab’s Nankana Sahib in Pakistan is false. The lynched person was from the Muslim community and was accused of blasphemy. The police have arrested 60 suspects in the case till now.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
Also Read: No, Bhagat Singh Was Not Executed On February 14, 1931: Viral Image Shared With False Claim
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Fact Check
2023-02-16 10:02:01.0
Was A Christian Man Lynched For Blasphemy In Pakistan? No, Viral Claim Is False
