Police officer shoots man after he was arrested in Pakistan for blasphemy and ‘insulting the Prophet’

An officer opened fire at a police station in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, killing a suspect detained for blasphemy, a local official said.

The dead man was identified as Syed Khan. Police said he was arrested the day before after officers rescued him from the clutches of an angry mob who claimed he had insulted the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Police officer Mohammad Khurram said the officer involved in the fatal shooting was arrested. Mr. Khurram did not provide further details.

Killing suspects in police custody is rare in Pakistan. Blasphemy allegations – sometimes even just rumors – are commonplace and often lead to riots and mob violence that can escalate into lynchings and murders.

Under Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death. However, authorities have yet to carry out a death sentence for blasphemy.

In the case of Mr Khan, the man killed on Thursday, local residents claimed he had made derogatory remarks about the Prophet and took action against him.

After his arrest, the mob surrounded the station and demanded that the police hand over Mr Khan so they could kill him.

At one point on Wednesday, a man threw a grenade at the train station, while a group of Islamists briefly blocked a major city road and demanded that Mr Khan be punished.

The crowd dispersed later in the day after officers managed to calm them down.

In Pakistan, there has been an increase in attacks on blasphemy suspects in recent years.

In June, a mob broke into a police station in the northwestern city of Madyan, abducted a man held there and lynched him for allegedly desecrating the Koran, Islam's holy book.

The attackers also set fire to the train station and burned police vehicles parked there. The man killed was a tourist who was staying at a hotel in the city when locals turned against him, accusing him of blasphemy.

Last year, a mob in the eastern province of Punjab attacked churches and Christian homes after allegedly witnessing a local Christian and his friend desecrating pages from a Koran.

In June, an angry mob beat and burned a tourist in northwest Pakistan for allegedly desecrating Islam's holy book, the Koran.

Local residents view the site where a Muslim mob lynched and burned a man in Madyan in June for allegedly desecrating Islam's holy book, the Koran.

Under Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or Islamic religious leaders can be sentenced to death.

The attack in Jaranwala district sparked nationwide condemnation, but Christians say the men linked to the violence have yet to be brought to justice.

In 2011, a police officer killed a former governor of Punjab province after accusing him of blasphemy. The officer, Mumtaz Qadri, was later sentenced to death and hanged.

After his execution, however, support for him grew. Tens of thousands attended his funeral in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Many in Punjab still consider him a martyr.

Quetta, a conservative city in southwest Pakistan, is also the capital of the troubled province of Balochistan, where militant groups carry out attacks almost daily and separatists have been fighting the government in Islamabad for decades.

Two brothers in Pakistan had previously been charged with blasphemy and damaging the Koran. They had incited a 5,000-strong mob to attack their Christian enclave. In March, they were released after six months in prison.