World Tour: Mob violence in Pakistan

Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour with our reporter in Africa, Onize Ohikere.

SOUND: [Street sound, cars honking, people talking]

Pakistan blasphemy update — We start today in northwestern Pakistan where authorities on Monday said they had detained 23 people over another mob killing last week.

Authorities said police had detained Mohammad Salman for his protection after the mob accused him of desecrating the Quran. The mob attacked the police station, killing Salman and burning his body. They also injured some police officers.

Ziaul Haq witnessed the violence.

HAQ: [Speaking Pashto]

He said the mob also burned the police station.

A separate mob last month attacked a 72-year-old Christian man who later died in the eastern Punjab province after similarly accusing him of desecrating the Quran.

Indian family sentenced — We head to a court in Geneva, Switzerland where an Indian billionaire and three members of his family received prison sentences for exploiting domestic workers.

The court dismissed human trafficking charges against Prakash Hinduja—along with his wife, son, and daughter-in-law. But they received sentences between four and 4 1/2 years in prison.

Robert Assaël is a lawyer for the Hinduja family.

ASSAËL: [Speaking French]

He says the verdict shocked him, adding that the family respected and treated their workers well.

The court said the family provided unauthorized employment to Indians working at very low pay at their lakeside valley in Switzerland. The Hindujas paid their workers in Indian rupees in bank accounts back in India.

Prosecutors said the workers also barely got vacation time, slept in the basement, and worked overtime when the family hosted events.

AUDIO: [Protesters chanting]

New Caledonia — Over in the French territory of New Caledonia, protests have broken out again after authorities transported seven detained independent activists to mainland France.

At least nine people died and hundreds more were injured in the demonstrations against controversial voting reforms.

The electoral changes would have allowed long-term residents to vote. But the territory’s indigenous Kanak people argued the move would take away their influence as a voting bloc and destroy any hope of ever gaining independence.

The detained activists include Christian Tein, who leads a pro-independence party.

Another New Caledonian, Christian Fizin, attended the march. He says there’s no evidence linking the pro-independence party leaders to the violence.

FIZIN: [Speaking French]

He adds here that the organization has always been pacifist and has organized peaceful marches since November.

AUDIO: [Prayer]

Saudi Arabia pilgrimage — Over in Saudi Arabia, more than 1,300 people have died during the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage.

Fahd bin Abdurrahman Al-Jalajel is Saudi Arabia’s health minister.

AL-JALAJEL: [Speaking Arabic]

He says the victims were under the sun without shelter and had traveled a long distance.

The minister said more than 80 percent of the dead pilgrims were undocumented, which meant they did not have as much access to air-conditioned shelter. Many of them arrived from Egypt.

Egypt has revoked the licenses of 16 travel agencies that aided the pilgrims to travel without the right authorization.

Each year, Muslims from around the world arrive in Saudi Arabia to perform religious rituals in and around their holy city of Mecca.

That’s it for today’s WORLD Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

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