In Charsadda, an angry crowd burned down a police department after the Pakistani Interior Ministry refused to extradite a suspect in the desecration of the Koran for lynching.
Chārsadda is a town and headquarters of Charsadda District, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is the eighty fifth-largest city of Pakistan, according to 2017 census. Located in the Valley of Peshawar, Charsadda lies about 29 kilometres from the provincial capital of Peshawar.
According to eyewitnesses, about five thousand people participated in the unrest, who intended to deal with the troublemaker on their own. In addition to the police department, patrol cars and an Interior Ministry checkpoint in the suburbs also suffered from the fire. To calm the crowd, the security forces had to use tear gas, as well as shoot into the air. After the arson attacks, residents staged a sit-in on one of the highways.
The conflict was resolved only with the help of religious leaders. As for the culprit of the riots, the police managed to transport him to a safe place. The Justice Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province condemned the unrest and said he would not allow the mob to take justice into their own hands.
