Lahore, March 18 A 30-year-old man has been arrested on charges of blasphemy for throwing stones at the Quran in the Punjab province of Pakistan, police said on Wednesday.
The incident took place in a village in the Sahiwal district, about 200 km from Lahore, on Tuesday.
According to the First Information Report (FIR), the complainant, Muhammad Shaukat, a prayer leader of a local mosque, alleged that the suspect, Kaleem, took a copy of the Quran from him and then threw it into a nearby drain and started throwing stones at it.
The report says that the villagers who were passing by overpowered him and handed him over to the police after beating him.
Police officer Subha Sadiq said that a case has been registered against the suspect under section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code.
He said that during the initial interrogation, the suspect told the police that he was under the influence of "supernatural forces" that forced him to desecrate the Quran.
Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) criminalizes the willful defiling, damaging, or desecrating of a copy of the holy Quran or an extract, or using it in a derogatory/unlawful manner.
This offense carries a mandatory punishment of life imprisonment and a fine.