title: Lynching of Nigar Alam
text: # Lynching of Nigar Alam
  
  On 6 May 2023, cleric Nigar Alam was lynched in Sawal Dher, Mardan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan for allegedly making blasphemous remarks.
  
  ## Background
  
  Blasphemy laws were implemented in British India in 1860. In present-day Pakistan, it carries the death penalty. Pakistan has sentenced people to death for blasphemy, but not executed anyone for it.
  
  ## Lynching
  
  On 6 May 2023, a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf rally took place in Sawal Dher in Mardan District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in northwestern Pakistan. Local cleric Nigar Alam allegedly made blasphemous remarks as the gathering was about to conclude. He allegedly said that he "respects PTI chairman Imran Khan like a Prophet as he is an honest man". Police escorted Alam into a shop in the market to protect him from an angry crowd. The mob broke into the shop and beat him to death.
  
  