On 28 November 2021, police arrested an apparently seriously mentally-ill man for allegedly desecrating a Quran by tearing out some its pages.[1] He was taken to Mandani police station in Tangi Tehsil, Charsadda District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northwest Pakistan.[1]
Attack
Later on the day of the arrest, a group of protesters, whom the police described as a mob of four to five thousand people, gathered outside the police station.[1] They demanded the police hand the suspect to them.[1] The police refused to do so, and during the night the protesters attacked the station, stealing weapons and burning the building down.[1][2] They also set fire to the vehicles in its car park.[1] The police fled, taking the suspect to an undisclosed location.[1] Following the attack, the mob set fire to a police check post on Harichand Road.[1] They blocked the road and staged a sit-in there.[1] The police dispersed them; eyewitnesses said the police used tear gas and aerial firing to do so.[1]
