A mob beat to death a member of the persecuted Ahmadiyya minority on Friday after hundreds of radical Islamists surrounded their place of worship in the port city of Karachi, police said.
"One member of the community was killed after the mob identified him as an Ahmadi. They attacked him with sticks and bricks," Muhammad Safdar, a senior local police official told AFP.
"The mob included members of several religious parties," he added.
Safdar said police took around 25 Ahmadis into custody for their safety.
An AFP journalist at the scene saw a prison van escorted by police vehicles take the Ahmadi men away, after negotiating with the 600-strong mob.
A local resident among the crowd told AFP he joined the group to put pressure on the police to arrest Ahmadis.
"We requested that the place be sealed and that those conducting the Friday prayers be arrested, with criminal proceedings initiated against them," Abdul Qadir Ashrafi said.
The Ahmadiyya community are considered heretics by the Pakistani government and have been persecuted for decades, but threats and intimidation have intensified in recent years.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
