'Desecration of Holy Quran': 2 children killed in Quetta protest
Violence erupted after police arrested a "mentally retarded" man said to have burnt pages of the holy book in Kuchlak, about 16 kilometres (10 miles) north of Quetta, senior administration official Qambar Dashti told AFP.
"Angry protesters, mostly Afghan refugees, torched several vehicles and pelted police with stones," Dashti said. They burnt tires and blocked the Quetta-Chaman highway.
"Chanting the man should be killed for blasphemy, they later entered the police station and started firing," he said, adding that a senior police officer, SP Saddar Malik Irshad narrowly escaped while his police guard was wounded in the shooting.
Police fired tear gas shells and opened fire in self defence, Quetta police chief Qazi Wajid said. ATF and FC had to be called in to bring the situation under control.
The clash left two children dead and 19 people wounded including eight policemen, he said. "All the wounded people have bullet injuries," he added.
The protesters said the accused deserved death for blasphemy and demanded the police hand him over to them, he said.
"The man appeared to be mentally retarded, we have taken him into custody and ordered an investigation," Wajid said, adding that control had been restored.
COMMENTS (23)
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That anyone should die for the burning of any book is hogwash. It's a shame when pages from a book cause death.
@unbeliever: he was taught in madarsa
@Rahul: Thats sad.. I though religion was made for people and not the vice versa.
Blasphemous or not..... The 'mob' needs to seriously consider the mans mental capacity. If he is indeed mentally handicapped, how can they possibly hold him responsible for an act that I am quite sure he was completely un aware of. Time for Islam to display some of that compassion it is always touting. I feel that this man will not get a fair shake and will soon end up dead for something he didn't even know that he did..... SAD.....:(
Rahul
From religion all else derives. Love for children, parents, friends, neighbors, colleagues is nothing before one's love for Allah tala and Prophet Muhammad ṣallallāhu alayhi wasallam.
It clearly means religion is much more important than lives of little children.
I want to know what the children were doing in this mob. Did their parents bring them?
SAD!
These Afghan refugess should be respectfully pushed over the border into Afghanistan to run their lives the way they want. The barbarianism of demanding death for a mentally retarded person's actions, and the killing of innocent people in the mayhem thus created, should not be allowed. People inciting such hatred and madness should be held responsible.
@kaalchakra: since when india had the veto power in un?
Hypersensitive hypocrites.
@kaalchakra:
The measure of a society’s well being is how it treats its most vulnerable citizens, for instance, mentally-retarded persons. By that measure, Pakistan is failing miserably.
i feel sorry for you if you believe what you wrote knowing well that the accused is a mentally retarded person.
You should exercise your cognitive abilities more often than you use your motor ones.
Horrible! How can anyone even think of insulting Quran e pak? Once, in the UN, Pakistan and OIC had raised the issue of protecting all copies of Quran e pak from people everywhere. Did India and America veto the resolution??
The biggest 'Desecration of Holy Quran' is not reading whats written in it. Not reading it in the local language.
RIP.
It's not just the blasphemy law anymore.
It's this new, viral idea that punishments are handed out not by the bang of a judge's gavel, but according to the whims of a mob that has as much understanding of law as Mubashir Luqman has of media ethics.
That Tom and Dick may simply waltz into a police station and demand that Harry be hanged for...oh, I don't know...what charges do we have on the menu today? Blasphemy, I guess.
It takes just a slogan "Islam Khatray may" to incite irrational frenzy that puts "insaniat kachray may".