People stand beside the body of a man who, according to police, was lynched by a mob, in Tulamba Village, central Pakistan, on February 13, 2022.
Police arrived to find the man unconscious and tied to a tree, Hussain said, adding that the mob also attacked the police.
“The villagers armed with batons, axes and iron rods killed him and hanged his body from a tree,” Hussain said.
He said that evidence so far gathered by police suggested the dead man, identified as Muhammad Mushtaq, was in his 50s and appeared to have had mental disabilities.
Mob killings over accusations of blasphemy — a crime that can carry the death sentence — are fairly frequent in Muslim-majority Pakistan.
In December, factory workers in the eastern city of Sialkot lynched and burnt the body of a Sri Lankan in an attack that Khan said brought shame on the country.
•File: Police officers stand outside a mosque on Sunday, after authorities said the man was killed for allegedly burning pages of the Quran in Tulamba Village, Mian Channu, central Pakistan