LAHORE - Police on Friday arrested a cleric accused of leading a mob trying to kill a Christian couple for allegedly committing blasphemy, a senior officer said.
Police had saved the couple on Tuesday from a Muslim mob who were attempting to lynch them in the village of Makki in Punjab’s Sheikhupura district.
“One of the clerics who led the mob demanding the arrest of the couple and their death was at large, he was arrested today (Friday) and we are looking for a barber who ignited the whole issue,” Sohail Zafar Chattha, the district police chief, told AFP.
Another cleric was arrested earlier in the week.
Sohail Zaffar Chattha said the cleric leading the mob demanded that police arrest the couple and charge them with blasphemy.
“I told him I would not register a case because no blasphemy has been committed,” Chattha said in a telephone interview. “But I have registered a case against the cleric and 400 others for inciting violence and endangering the lives of the couple.”
About 500 people in Sadar Farooqabad town attacked Owais Masih and his wife after a neighbour complained that they were sleeping on a plastic sheet with verses from the Quran written on it.
Police rescued the couple as the mob began to beat them. The couple were later taken into protective custody and moved to an undisclosed location.
“The mob meant business. They wanted to kill them right there,” Chattha said. “And all because they are poor, illiterate people who didn’t realise that a line from the Quran was written on a sheet they had purchased.”
The incident, which took place in the village of Makki on Tuesday, represents a rare successful intervention by authorities in a country where even unproven allegations of blasphemy can result in a bloody death at the hands of vigilantes.