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The incident happened Friday in Sailkot district in central Punjab province, 200 kilometers southeast of the capital Islamabad. “A rumor spread in the factory that the manager pulled a religious poster from the wall and threw it in the trash,” said a police officer in the area. According to a police spokesperson, one of the main suspects is among the arrested people.
Revenge
Tahir Ashrafi, a religious scholar and special representative of the prime minister on religious matters, confirmed the arrest and told France’s AFP news agency that workers had complained that the manager was “very strict”. “Police experts are investigating this case from several angles, including the possibility that some factory workers played a religious card to get revenge on the manager,” Ashrafi said.
Blasphemy is very sensitive in Pakistan and even the slightest suggestion of an insult to Islam can provoke protests and incite lynchings.
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