In the province of Sindh in southeastern Pakistan, two extrajudicial executions have taken place within a week, whereby arbitrary or intentional killings were carried out either on the orders of, with the participation of, or with the acquiescence of the state.

On 17 September, a doctor named Shahnawaz Kumbhar was accused of allegedly spreading blasphemous material on social media. After the accusations became public knowledge, people gathered in the city of Umerkot to protest. According to media reports, the next day in the city of Mirpurkhas, police shot at the accused. Islamists then took control of the body and set it on fire before it could be transferred from the hospital, where death had been determined, to the family. They also honored the gunman with hymns and flowers.

Just a week earlier, on 12 September, 52-year-old hotel owner Abdul Ali was shot dead by an officer in a police station in the city of Quetta (Balochistan province). He was being held there on blasphemy charges. The entrepreneur had been arrested the day before because he had reportedly posted derogatory comments about the Islamic religious founder Mohammed on social media. A mob then formed in front of the police station and demanded that the prisoner be handed over. According to media reports, the family of the murderer received numerous visitors in the days that followed, congratulating them on the act ‘in the name of the Prophet.’