KARACHI: A vigilante mob stormed a police station in a New Karachi area on Thursday to punish a young woman booked and arrested for her alleged involvement in desecration of Holy Quran, police said.

They said that the arrest was made earlier in the day when the police saved the suspect, said to be emotionally disturbed, from the wrath of angry people and brought her to the Bilal Colony police station, where she was booked in a blasphemy case.

They said that in the afternoon, when the news spread a large number of people gathered outside the police station in an attempt to take law into their hands as they were not satisfied with the legal course of action and wanted to punish the suspect by themselves.

Realising gravity of the situation, heavy contingents of police and Rangers moved to the scene and senior officials tried to pacify and disperse the protesters.

Suspect’s husband tells police she was emotionally disturbed; blasphemy FIR registered

Later, Area SHO Ahmed Nawaz told Dawn that the law-enforcers prevented the situation from deteriorating and dispersed the mob.

He said that suspect Mehwish Imran, aged around 30-35 years, was arrested by a police patrol and later she was booked in a case under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The PPC Section pertaining to “defiling of Holy Quran” states: “Whoever willfully defiles, damages or desecrates a copy of the Holy Qur’an or of an extract therefrom or uses it in any derogatory manner or for any unlawful purpose shall be punishable with imprisonment for life.”

The FIR, registered on behalf of the state, said that a police patrol got information via Madadgar-15 that area people were manhandling a woman for allegedly burning pages of Holy Quran on a main road in New Karachi’s Sector 5-E.

When the police reached the spot they saw scores of people with two women who got hold of the suspect. One of the women, Irum, informed the police that she was heading for work in a rickshaw when she saw the suspect holding in one hand a copy of the holy book in flames and a knife in the other on the main road.

She said as she snatched Quran and the knife from the suspect, a number of people gathered there and started grilling the suspect who identified herself as Mehwish Imran.

According to the FIR, the copy of Holy Quran, handed over to the police by the two women, was partially burnt.

In one of the videos circulating on the social media, the suspect was seen answering a question as to why she burnt Quran. “I am Jew … Muslims are against Jews … that’s why,” she replied.

However, the area SHO told Dawn that the suspect was Muslim. He said she originally hailed from Dadu and lived here in Khamiso Goth in New Karachi.

He added that he contacted her husband over the phone and he informed him that his wife was “emotionally disturbed” and getting treatment.

The husband wanted to produce the record of her mental ailments and treatment but police did not allow him to come to the police station because of the presence of angry protesters.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2022