The entrance to the district police headquarters in southern Pakistan was carpeted with rose petals, a grand gesture of respect. A crowd filled the air with chants of Islamic slogans. Many carried garlands and flower bouquets to laud the officers for their actions.

       The throngs were ecstatic because the police had killed a man. His supposed crime: “blasphemous content” on social media.

       The man, a 36-year-old government doctor, had been shot “unintentionally” as he resisted arrest, the authorities claimed. But human rights groups called it an extrajudicial killing, the second such one in a week. On Sept. 12, a 52-year-old man in custody on suspicion of blasphemy was shot dead inside a police station in southwestern Pakistan.

       The cases have reverberated across the nation, highlighting the volatile nature of Pakistan’s religious landscape. Blasphemy, a legal offense that can carry the death penalty, has long been a sensitive issue in a country that is more than 96 percent Muslim. Even a mere accusation can be deadly; mobs sometimes lynch people before their cases can go to trial.

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       Rights activists have expressed concerns over the government’s tolerance of hard-line Islamist groups and over surging violence among their supporters after blasphemy allegations. The killings of the two men this month have ignited fears that the police, pressured by the mob actions, may now be taking matters into their own hands, too.

       Image

       A gathering in Peshawar, Pakistan, in February by protesters accusing the country’s chief justice of blasphemy.Credit...Arshad Arbab/EPA, via Shutterstock

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