The 16-year-old Christian was reportedly charged under section 295-B of Pakistan’s penal code, referring to a part of the country’s constitution that makes the death sentence or life imprisonment mandatory for anyone who damages or desecrates the Quran.
olice had to intervene as an angry mob attacked Massih in Wazirabad’s Jamkay Chattha village in Punjab province before he was arrested.
A police officer who did not want to disclose his name told VOA that Massih had “admitted to have desecrated the Quran.”
A local fruit vendor, Nawaz, who reportedly witnessed the burning, protested the incident which incited locals to assault Massih, police said.