CHITRAL: An apparently deranged man on Friday made remarks considered blasphemous by other worshippers at a mosque, stoking riots in Chitral after Friday prayers as an enraged mob tried to ransack the police station where he was confined after his arrest.

Tear gas shells were fired to disperse the mob, estimated at between 2,000 and 3,000, which wanted the police to hand him over to them.

The delusional man from a nearby village who was deported from Abu Dhabi over mental health issues last year first created a scene in a mosque, but the prayer leader managed to calm him down with the help of villagers and turned him in to the police.

People started converging on the police station as word spread about the man`s remarks.

The commandant of Chitral Scouts and district nazim Maghfirat Shah rushed to the place and tried to pacify the protesters, but to no avail. Police said they had arrested the man and booked him under Section 295-C (Use of derogatory remarks, etc, in respect of the Holy Prophet) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Agencies add: Six police officers were injured after they intervened to rescue Rashiduddin.

A police official said he had asked for army assistance to help control the crowds, but eyewitnesses said no soldiers arrived.

Police fired tear gas and live rounds on the mob, injuring eight protesters, after they attacked the local police headquarters and demanded that alleged blasphemer Rashid be made available for mob justice.

`We told them that Rashid will be examined medically and if he was found mentally fit then he will be tried under the blasphemy law, but the mob was not satisfied,` said local police chief Akbar Ali Shah.

There have been at least 67 murders in the country over unproven blasphemy allegations since 1990, according to figures from a research centre.

Police are investigating over 20 students and some faculty members in connection with the killing of Mashal Khan, the university student who was beaten to death on April 13 in Mardan over allegations that he had posted blasphemous material on social media.