Balochistan police say no case has been registered over any violation of the blasphemy law.

A mob killed a man and wounded three others over the alleged desecration of a Quran in Quetta on Wednesday, officials said.

The violence started when some vendors allegedly found torn-out pages of the Quran in a pomegranate crate they received in a shipment from neighboring Iran, witnesses and officials said. A mob then formed, shouting slogans against Shias, who form a majority in Iran.

The mob destroyed shops, burnt a motorcycle and tried to march toward a Shia neighborhood in the city but was stopped by police, a senior police official said on condition of anonymity. The crowd began shooting indiscriminately in various parts of the city, which resulted in one death and bullet wounds to three others.

“At least one man was killed and three others were wounded in firing incidents in the city,” said provincial home secretary Asad Gilani. Gilani said the unrest in the city was contained after paramilitary troops were deployed in key areas, but he declined to shed light on the allegations of desecration. He said that nobody had come to the police to register a case under the country’s blasphemy law.

In June last year a man was killed and 19 others were wounded when a mob attacked a police station demanding a man detained for allegedly desecrating the Quran be handed over.