Police at Tulamba, Mian Channu on Monday arrested six more people, thus bringing the total number of main suspects arrested in the case of lynching of a man over blasphemy charges to 21 while raids were being conducted to arrest the remaining persons, as identified with the help of footages obtained from CCTV cameras, till the filing of this news report, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
Spokesman for the Punjab Police said that those taken into custody included Muhammad Yaqub, Kashif, Muhammad Riaz, Saqlain, Muhammad Shan, Asif, Nadeem, Qaiser Nazir, Abdul Ghani, Muhammad Aslam, Muhammad Amir, Ijaz Mehboobur Rehman, Muhammad Bilal and Ali Sher.
“These people could be seen in the footages hitting Mushtaq, the victim, with bricks and rods,” he said, adding that sections related to terrorism and other serious offences had been inserted in the cases registered against them in order to ensure maximum penalties.
The spokesman went on to add that the police had so far taken over 100 persons into custody in connection with the incident, and now it was busy separating the main suspects from the others.
“Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar and Inspector General of Police (IGP) are themselves monitoring the entire crackdown,” he informed.
Yesterday, on February 13, 2022, 24News had reported that the unfortunate man, who was killed by a mob in village Tulamba 17 Morr, Mian Channu on charges of desecration of the Holy Quran, had been identified as Mushtaq. He belonged to Chak 12 of Khanewal.
Reporters: Fakhr Zaman Ali and Ali Sahi