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Zahid Shah, 40, was dragged out of his home in the presence of his wife and brother and beaten with iron rods and sticks. When he fell unconscious, Shah was dragged to the village square where the local religious leader, Maulvi Faqir Mohammed, ordered the mob to stone him, according to a report in the daily Dawn.
The terror struck family of the victim begged for mercy and promised to banish him from the village, but the mullah stood his ground, residents said. Shah died on the spot.
The family buried the body in nearby Faisalabad without complaining to the police fearing reprisals against them.
However, the police, which reached the spot four hours after the incident, said the matter was being investigated.
"We have started a probe into the incident and we may order exhumation of the body to find out the cause of death," a police officer was quoted as saying.
The man, who was mentally ill, had claimed to be the "last prophet of Islam".
Shah had earlier been jailed for blasphemy in 1994, but freed three years later on the ground that he was mentally ill.
After his release in 1997, Shah left his village to live with a brother in nearby Faisalabad city with the case still pending against him.
Last week, he returned to his village and had an altercation with the residents during which he openly used blasphemous remarks against Prophet Mohammed.
A village tribal council immediately banished him.
Shah then left the village and returned on Thursday following which the residents complained to the mullah who issued the order to kill him over a mosque loudspeaker.
The incident came close on the heels of the gang rape of a tribal girl in Multan on June 22 after her brother was seen walking unchaperoned with a girl from a higher tribe in a deserted part of a village.
PTI
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