More than 80 Christian homes and 19 churches have been vandalized in Jaranwala, Pakistan, by a Muslim mob after a local family was accused of desecrating a copy of the Quran this week, police said on Friday.

“The events were tragic. This kind of violence can never be justified,” said Usman Anwar, chief of the provincial police of the Penjab region, where Jaranwala is located.

The attack came after a group of religious zealots accused a family of blasphemy against Islam’s sacred text.

Police said they had arrested a further 128 people in connection with the attack, which damaged 87 houses in the Christian Quarter, with their contents scattered in the streets.

The angry mob was ordered to protest by Islamic clerics, who used the mosque’s loudspeakers to broadcast the accusations.

Muslims living in the predominantly Christian area protected their neighbors and nailed verses from the Quran to the doors of Christian homes to avoid being targeted, residents of both faiths told AFP.

This Friday, 3,200 churches were guarded by police in Punjab province to reassure the Christian community, Anwar said, adding that he will travel to Jaranwala on Sunday to show solidarity with the Christian community.

Christians make up 2% of the population

Government and religious leaders have already come out with calls for calm, and Christian groups have staged a series of small protests across the country calling for increased protection.

“We hope that this protest will make the government realize that this issue must be dealt with firmly and that those who have committed destruction must be brought to justice,” said Archbishop of Karachi, Benny Travis.

Mohsin Naqvi, the interim chief minister of Punjab, expressed solidarity with the Christians and added that they would be compensated for their losses. The provincial government announced an investigation into the violence.

Christians, who make up about two percent of the population, occupy one of the lowest echelons of Pakistani society and are often the target of false accusations of blasphemy. Blasphemy is an incendiary accusation in the highly conservative, Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even baseless allegations of insults against Islam and its prophet Mohammed can cause death at the hands of fanatical vigilantes.

Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission said the number and scale of attacks “appear to have increased in recent years”.