HRCP Chairman Asad Iqbal Butt Urges Pakistan to Stop Mob Killings

The Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Asad Iqbal Butt, has demanded that the federal government take immediate action to prevent future mob killings or lynching incidents. This call to action comes after a recent mob killing in Swat, Pakistan, and a similar incident a month earlier in Sargodha.

Butt stated that these brutal killings show the state’s failure to prevent violence in the name of religion. He mentioned that the victim in the Swat incident had denied the charge of desecrating the Holy Quran while in police custody. Butt emphasized that these incidents are a result of nurturing extremism and far-right groups over decades.

He criticized the state for being complicit in these crimes by allowing people to perpetrate violence in the name of faith. Butt also highlighted that mob killings are not limited to religious violence, citing three incidents in Karachi where mobs tortured suspected criminals to death.

The HRCP also criticized the Pakistani parliament for not considering a proposal to form a committee to investigate such incidents. Butt urged Parliament to strongly oppose fundamentalism, hate content, and violence in the name of religion, putting aside political differences. He also called on the Islamic Ideological Council to take action to eradicate the tendency of society to take the law into its own hands.