In light of the recent incident in Mardan, mob lynching has become a topic of discussion. And as of today, we witnessed another attack on a man accused of blasphemy in a mosque, in Chitral.

Another incident of mob try to lynch man on blasphemy allegation in #Chitral, Pakistan can't bear consequences of this deadly wave more.

— Farooque Bhayo (@FarooqueBhayo) April 21, 2017

During the jumma khutba at the Shahi masjid in Chitral, the man stood up and claimed prophethood.

According to a local Facebook community ‘Chitral Click News’, the man is identified as Rasheed. Rasheed has had a history of mental illness, one which surfaced in Qatar, where he was living before. According to the page, he became psychologically disabled in Qatar and was soon sent back to Pakistan, where he has been living, till date.

As soon as Rasheed spoke the words, the huge crowd of worshipers present in the mosque started advancing towards him to beat him to death.

It was at this point that the imam of the mosque, himself, intervened and saved Rasheed. He was then handed over to the local police for them to deal with him, according to the law. However, a crowd of over 1000 people gathered outside the police station and broke in, in order to get Rasheed out and deal with him, themselves. The police had to take stringent measures in order to protect him from the angered mob and used tear gas to drive them back.

Did people in mosque even consider for a moment that the man may be mentally ill-which details suggest he is-before thrashing him? #Chitral pic.twitter.com/iE2h3iCkGD

— Bilal Farooqi (@bilalfqi) April 21, 2017

3 hours later, the crowd only grew and demanded for Rasheed to either be handed over to them or to be given the death penalty, to be executed immediately.

According to the page ‘Chitral Click News’, Rasheed’s friends and family are urging the police and the crowd to back away, because he doesn’t know what he’s doing or what he’s saying. They cannot urge the crowd enough to let him go, because he’s mentally disabled.

Thousands have gathered around the police station in #Chitral. As a high level security meeting is called to disperse the mob. pic.twitter.com/e3NeiRjK9N

— Iftikhar Firdous (@IftikharFirdous) April 21, 2017

In all of this, one thing is to be appreciated the fact that the Imam of the mosque stepped in to save Rasheed from the hands of the mob, who only have blood on their minds.

That the authority on Islam himself wants the matter to be dealt with through proper channels of the law, should be enough for these staunch ‘Muslims’ to back away and let the police handle the case, but no. The police protecting Rasheed is also commendable, because as we’ve seen in the past, that doesn’t happen too often.

#Police have had to resort to rubber bullets & teargas after a mob attacked the police station #Chitral for a man accused of #BlasphemyLaws pic.twitter.com/gCHFJieH2j

— Qaisar kamran (@Qai_kam) April 21, 2017

After the attack on Mashal Khan, prominent politicians have come out and assured the public and citizens that anyone who tries to take the law into their hands will be dealt with severely by the authorities and forces. And we earnestly want to see justice being served.