- Monday, January 13, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Reviving the memory of December 2021 when a Sri Lankan factory manager was brutally killed and set ablaze by a mob in Pakistan over blasphemy, a Hindu sanitation worker in the country was booked in a fake blasphemy case over alleged desecration of Quran, local media reports said. The incident happened in the Pakistani city of Hyderabad in its Sindh province.
The complaint was lodged by a local resident following a brawl with the sanitation worker belonging to the minority Hindu community, identified as Ashok Kumar. The local police had to disperse an angry mob which gathered around an apartment building to catch the worker.
“Hyderabad police dispersed a violent mob which was demanding handing over a Hindu sanitary worker accusing him of #blasphemy Police claims the sanitary worker was targeted because of a personal clash with a local resident,” Mubashir Zaidi, a journalist, said in a tweet.
Kumar was reportedly lodged at Rabia centre in Saddar of Hyderabad.
Hyderabad police dispersed a violent mob which was demanding handing over a Hindu sanitary worker accusing him of #blasphemy Police claims the sanitary worker was targeted because of a personal clash with a local resident pic.twitter.com/CnSFLNLqhH
— Mubashir Zaidi (@Xadeejournalist) August 21, 2022
Another Pakistani journalist and columnist Naila Inayat also tweeted about the matter, saying, “Hindu sanitary worker Ashok Kumar booked under 295B of blasphemy over alleged desecration of the Quran in Hyderabad. The allegation came after a brawl with shopkeeper Bilal Abbasi who then lodged the complaint against Kumar.”
“Earlier, a charged mob gathered around the apartment building to get hold of the Hindu man. Police dispersed the mob and arrested the victim,” she added.
Hindu sanitary worker Ashok Kumar booked under 295B of blasphemy over alleged desecration of the Quran in Hyderabad. The allegation came after a brawl with a shopkeeper Bilal Abbasi who then lodged the complaint against Kumar.
— Naila Inayat (@nailainayat) August 21, 2022
Asian News International cited local media reports to say that a Muslim woman who burned the community’s holy book.
Social media users lauded the local police for quickly dispersing the violent mob before another December-like incident happened.
One user wrote, “excellent work by Pakistan’s Sindh police in Hyderabad city, no room for bigotry of any kind: now that a disaster has been averted, the perpetrators and instigators must be brought to justice.”
“The misuse of the draconian blasphemy laws against minorities and even members of the Muslim community to settle personal grudges is rampant in Pakistan,” another user tweeted.
Pakistan has a draconian blasphemy law and several cases of lynching have happened over mere accusation.
Last year, the Sri Lankan manager was beaten to death in Sialkot over blasphemy allegations and the incident had caused a massive outrage over then prime minister Imran Khan saying it was a “day of shame for Pakistan”.
