MULTAN, Pakistan - A frenzied mob beat a teacher to death when he tried to help a Muslim cleric in a row over the alleged desecration of the Quran, a local police chief said on Friday.The prayer leader was attacked by more than 1,000 people at Hasilpur town in central Punjab province after claims that he burned pages from an old copy of the holy book near a drain, Nasir Sayal told AFP. “A retired school teacher came in and tried to save the cleric but he was also severely beaten by the mob and later died in hospital,” he said.
Both victims belonged to the hardline Islamic Jamaat-ud-Dawa party, an incarnation of the banned Kashmir militant group Laskhar-e-Taiba, he added.
An angry crowd also attacked a police vehicle and broke its windscreen when it tried to rescue the two men, Sayal said.
Security has been beefed up in the area and police have registered a case against the cleric under the countryÂ’s blasphemy law and a separate case against unknown people for murdering the school teacher.