There were no casualties as Christians living in a residential area in the town of Jaranwala in Faisalabad district rushed to flee to safer places with their families following one of the deadliest attacks on the country on record. Christian community.
Christians were slowly making their way back to their homes on Thursday, only to find destruction and at least one church burned. Four other churches were damaged. Two dozen homes were burned down or badly damaged in the riots.
“We were sitting at home when suddenly we heard a mob was coming and burning houses and attacking churches,” Shazia Amjad said as she wept in front of her house, which was set on fire on Wednesday.
The woman told The Associated Press that the attackers had burned household items and furniture. Some of her possessions were stolen when she fled to a safer place with her family, she added.
Amjad said the attackers had used fuel to burn houses in his area, as well as steal jewelry and other items. Other Christians described similar hardships and expressed their bewilderment.
Members of the Christian community comforted each other in front of their damaged houses, while many women wept and mourned the destruction. Those whose houses had burned down had no idea where to go or what to do next.
Khalid Mukhtar, a local priest, told the AP on Wednesday that most of the Christians in the area had fled to safer areas. “Even my house was burned down,” he said. The priest said he believed that most of the 17 churches in Jaranwala had been attacked.
Delegations of Muslim clerics poured into Jaranwala to try to calm things down as troops and police patrolled the area.
Local authorities closed schools and offices and banned demonstrations for a week to prevent further violence.
The violence was condemned across the country, with the interim prime minister, Anwaarul-ul-Haq Kakar, ordering the police to ensure that the mob participants were detained.
Regional police chief Rizwan Khan said Thursday that 129 suspects had been detained and the situation was under control.
The violence erupted after some Muslim residents in the area claimed they had seen a local Christian, Raja Amir, and a friend tearing pages out of a Koran, throwing them on the ground and writing insulting comments on other pages.
Police said they were trying to detain Amir to determine if he had desecrated the Islamic holy book.
According to Khan, the mob quickly formed and began attacking several churches and homes of various Christians. People also attacked the offices of a city administrator on Wednesday, but police eventually intervened, firing into the air and using batons to disperse the crowd with the help of elders and Muslim clerics.
Videos and photos shared on social media showed an angry mob storming a church, throwing chunks of bricks and burning it. In another video, four other churches were seen attacked and with their windows broken, while the attackers threw furniture outside and set them on fire.
In another video, a man was seen climbing onto the roof of a church and removing an iron cross after hitting it several times with a hammer as a crowd cheered.
The violence was condemned by national and international human rights groups.
Amnesty International called for the repeal of the country’s blasphemy laws.
Under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, anyone convicted of insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death. Although the authorities have yet to carry out a death sentence for blasphemy, often the mere accusation can spark riots and lead mobs to violence, lynching and murder.
Domestic and international human rights groups say blasphemy charges have often been used to intimidate religious minorities in Pakistan and settle personal disputes.
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Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Asim Tanveer in Multan and Babar Dogar in Lahore, Pakistan contributed to this report.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
