Lahore, Pakistan: A woman and two of her young granddaughters were burned to death on Sunday night in the eastern city of Gujranwala after a member of their Ahmadi minority sect was accused of posting a blasphemous picture to Facebook, the police said.

The mob of roughly 1000 people began rampaging through an Ahmadi neighbourhood after being alerted to the photograph, setting houses on fire and injuring at least eight other people, according to the police.

Ahmadis belong to a reform sect rooted in Islam, but under Pakistani law they are forbidden to identify themselves as Muslim. They come under frequent attack, and have often been targeted under Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws.

The blasphemy accusation was brought against Aqib Saleem, an 18-year-old Ahmadi man who was alleged to have uploaded a picture of the Kaaba, the sacred shrine in Mecca toward which Muslims turn when they pray, with a semi-nude white woman sitting on top.