Pakistan was shocked by the news of mob lynching incident in Swat which was driven by blasphemy. A local tourist was burnt alive by an angry mob after forcefully abducting him from a police station where he was under arrest. This incident reflects clear fault lines and failure of Pakistan’s administrative, governance and legal systems in ensuring the basic human rights like safety of life and honor, which are enshrined in the constitution of the land.
This was not the first time when someone was accused and lynched over the allegations of blasphemy in Pakistan. Lately, there has been an alarming uptick in this trend where people use blasphemy to settle personal vendetta. It is not clear so far if the Swat incident was also one such episode but if we look back, only during the last year of 2023, there were multiple such incidents reported where people were lynched to death after being charged for blasphemy.
So, such incidents are nothing new in Pakistan but there are two concerning aspects which can have far reaching consequences for the state and society. Most obviously, incidents like Swat exposed the decay at societal level. People with lack of education and understanding of Islamic laws usually indulge into these heinous crimes. Lack of education give room to fundamentalist tendencies in masses which are further amplified by poorly educated local Imams. Consequently, at........