While there were no immediate reports of casualties, the violence prompted the Pakistani government to send more police forces to the area and deploy the military to help restore order.
The attacks in Jaranwala, Faisalabad district, Punjab province, began after some Muslim residents in that area claimed they had seen a local Christian, Raja Amir, and a friend of his tearing leaves from a copy of the Quran. and throw them at them, throw them on the floor and write offensive comments on other pages.
Police Chief Rizwan Khan explained that this had angered local Muslims. A mob gathered and began attacking several churches and several Christian homes, setting fire to furniture and other household items. Some members of the Christian community fled their homes to escape the mob.
Police eventually intervened, firing into the air and brandishing batons to disperse the attackers, with the help of Muslim clerics and elders.
Authorities also indicated that they had begun conducting house searches in an effort to find all those responsible for the disturbances. Dozens of participants in the attacks were detained.
The police commander, Bilal Mehmood, told the press that they are also looking for Raja Amir, who hid to escape the mob, and they will arrest him to find out if he has violated the holy book of Islam.
Videos and photos posted to social media show an angry mob attacking a church, throwing stones and setting it on fire.
In another video, two other churches are attacked and have their windows smashed as the attackers behind them throw furniture out and set it on fire.
The videos show several police officers watching the situation without intervening to stop the acts of vandalism in Christian temples.
In yet another video, a man can be seen climbing to the roof of a church and removing the steel cross after repeatedly hitting it with a hammer, as the crowd in the street cheers him on.
A local priest, Khalid Mukhtar, said most of the Christians living in the area had fled to safer places.
“Even my house was on fire,” he said.
According to the Christian priest, there are 17 churches in Jaranwala and most of them have been attacked. Authorities have yet to confirm that number.
Father Gulshan Barkat, who teaches church history at the National Catholic Institute of Theology in Karachi, called the blasphemy allegations “false” and stressed that local mosques were also responsible for the violence, as their loudspeakers in minarets had been ringing for hours. about Muslims working together and “attacking the churches of the Christian community”.
It was not possible to contact any of the clerics in the Jaranwala mosques to confirm the claim about the message broadcast over the loudspeakers.
Blasphemy allegations are common in Pakistan. Under the laws of the country, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death.
While Pakistani authorities have never issued a death sentence for blasphemy to date, the accusation is often enough to spark riots and incite gang violence, lynchings and murders.
In one of the country’s worst attacks on Christians, a gang set fire to about 60 houses and killed six Christians in Punjab’s Gojra district in 2009 after accusing them of insulting Islam.
Source: DN
