A 5,000-strong mob has burned multiple police stations in Pakistan while demanding officers hand over a man accused of torching a copy of the Koran.
The crowd gathered outside the police station in the town of Charsadda, in northern Pakistan, late Sunday after learning cops were holding a man accused of blasphemy.
Thugs demanded police hand the man over 'so we can burn him alive the way he burned the Koran', before settling light to the station and surrounding checkpoints.Around 30 cars were also torched in a night of anarchy that continued into Monday morning when around 2,000 people remained at the scene.'The mob stormed the station asking to hand over the man to them so they could burn him alive like he burnt the Holy Koran,' district police chief Asif Bahadur said.
The identity and religion of the accused has not been disclosed by police, Bahadur said, but described him as 'mentally impaired'.
'The motive behind burning the copy of the Holy Quran is still unknown but we are investigating.'
No officers were hurt in the attacks, which forced the police to summon troops to restore order, local officer Asif Khan said.
Khan said officers foiled an attempt by the mob to lynch the detainee and the police moved him to another district. He did not disclose the name of the man, saying officers were still investigating and the suspect was arrested a day ago.
Khan said officers initially resisted but fled after thousands of demonstrators attacked the police buildings.
He said police avoided the use of force to prevent casualties among demonstrators.
The situation in Charsadda was normal Monday, he said, and law enforcement was seeking to arrest people linked to the attacks.
Blasphemy carries the death penalty in Pakistan, where mere allegations of the offense are often enough to provoke mob violence.
International and domestic rights groups say accusations of blasphemy have often been made maliciously to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal scores.
A Christian couple was lynched then burnt in a kiln in Punjab in 2014 after being falsely accused of desecrating the Koran.
A former Punjab governor Salman Taseer was gunned down by his bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri, in Islamabad in 2011 over his call for blasphemy law reform.
Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman and a labourer from central Punjab province, was convicted of blasphemy in 2010 and was on death row until her acquittal in 2018, which prompted days of violent Islamist demonstrations.
She and her family later fled the country for Canada.
In 2017, a group of students at the Abdul Wali Khan University in the northwestern city of Mardan attacked and killed another student, Mohammad Mashal, after accusing him of sharing blasphemous content on Facebook.
The country has frequently been paralysed in recent years by anti-blasphemy protests waged by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan party.
Demonstrations are often linked to the publishing of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed by a French satirical magazine.
KP Law Minister Fazal Shakoor Khan, who hails from Charsadda, told media that police had arrested a man for allegedly desecrating the Quran on Sunday and shifted him to the Mandani police station in Charsadda's Tangi tehsil.
They also vandalised the vehicles parked in the police station, according to the minister.He told media that police managed to shift the suspect to a safe location.
"The government will not allow anyone to take the law into their own hands," he said. "The suspect who has been arrested will be proceeded against in accordance with the law."
The minister added that the situation was still tense in the area.
Given the current law and order situation, police have yet to release more details about the man in custody and the complaint against him. Police also did not confirm any casualties in the violence.
Peshawar Division Commissioner Riaz Mehsud confirmed the attack, saying 4,000-5,000 people had ransacked the police station and a police post in their pursuit for "mob justice".
He added that the man is in police custody and is safe.
Following the attack, the mob staged a sit-in on Harichand Road. But late at night, Mehsud said the administration had controlled the situation with the help of local religious elders, and the mob had ended the sit-in and dispersed.
Earlier, Charsadda police spokesperson Shafiullah Jan confirmed that a mob had attacked the police station and that the situation was tense in the area. He added that police were trying to control the situation.
"The mob was angry and police failed to control it," a police official requesting anonymity told media.
"The situation is still tense and police personnel from other areas have also reached the spot to control the mob," he said.
Eyewitnesses said the police had used tear-gas shelling and aerial firing to disperse the mob.
Another police official said that the police station had been completely destroyed, adding that a number of vehicles and police records had also been lost to the fire.
The mob also attacked and set ablaze a police check post on Harichand Road and also blocked the road for traffic, a police official told reporters