Pakistan: Mob kills man for insulting Koran

Thousands of people have beaten a man to death before burning his corpse after he was accused of desecrating Islam's holy book, Pakistani police said.

The man was killed after attackers stormed a police station where he had been detained for allegedly throwing pages from the Koran onto the street, police official Mohammed Azhar Gujar said yesterday. He said that police officers tried to protect the man during Tuesday's attack, but the mob turned violent. They burned several police vehicles and wounded seven officers before grabbing the man, who has not been identified.

Under Pakistani blasphemy laws, anyone guilty of insulting Islam's Prophet or the Koran can be sentenced to death. But these laws are often misused to settle personal scores.