A Pakistani Christian boy faces a death sentence after he was arrested and charged with burning pages of the Quran.
Asif Massih, 18, was taken into custody on August 12 after an alleged incident took place in Jam Kayk Chattha village, near the town of Wazirabad, in central Punjab province.
Police confirmed Massih is being charged under section 295-B of Pakistan's constitution that deems anyone who damages or desecrates the Quran punishable by death.
'He is in jail now,' local police official Muhammad Asghar at the Alipur Chattha police station told Al Jazeera.
'When the police took the suspect into custody and brought him to a police check-post, a crowd of around 200 men gathered outside...demanding the culprit be handed over to them,' another police official Pervaiz Iqbal told AFP news agency.
'We then secretly moved the culprit to the police station in Wazirabad where he was interrogated and confessed to his crime.'
The country's controversial blasphemy laws are heavily criticised by religious freedom campaigners with opponents saying they are used to target religious minorities.
On top of that increasingly extremists and mobs take the law into their own hands and carry out extra-judicial killings for people accused of blasphemy.
Last week 24 leading British politicians wrote to Pakistan's President and Prime Minister on the country's independence day urging the law to be repealed.
'We sincerely believe that by addressing these pressing issues and by repealing these laws you will bequeath a priceless gift to the people of Pakistan, a gift of hope, unity and prosperity and we earnestly hope that you will give these issues the urgent attention they deserve,' the letter, signed by several Christian parliamentarians, read.
Last month MEP Marijana Petir called for Pakistan's blasphemy laws to be repealed and a 'safe place' found for Christians in an article for the European Parliament's magazine.
'Successive Pakistani governments have allowed radicalised extremist forces to thrive, drastically reducing tolerance within society and depriving minority religious groups the right to live safely and with dignity,' she wrote, adding Christians, who make up 1.6 per cent of Pakistan's population, 'live in constant fear of persecution, are denied their basic right to education and livelihood, and forced to live in their own restricted ghetto-like neighbourhoods'.
