More Than 20 Churches, Over 200 Homes and Shops Burnt and Destroyed
Misuse of Blasphemy Law Continues; Radical Mob Sets Christian Community Ablaze
August 16, 2023: In Jaranwala, a district of Faisalabad, Punjab, the Christian locality was attacked and set ablaze over allegations of blasphemy by a local Muslim. The controversy erupted on Wednesday morning after torn pages of the Quran with alleged blasphemous content written in red ink and a picture of the accused pasted on It, were said to be discovered in front of Raja Amir Saleem’s house in a Christian colony. The evidence was taken to a local religious cleric, who reportedly urged Muslims to protest and demand that the accused be arrested.
Thereafter inciting announcements were made from the local mosque by Muhammad Yasin, ordering locals to leave their breakfast and gather to protect their honor as Muslims in response to the alleged desecration of the Quran by Christians.
Following the announcement, the violent mob gathered with batons, sticks and inflammable substances and attacked the Christians. The mob chanted slogans of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a widely popular far right party advocating for the beheading of those accused of blasphemy. The heartrending videos of the barbaric attacks have gone viral on social media, showing the frenzied mob climbing atop churches and kicking the holy cross — a symbol of reverence for Christians.
21 Churches were vandalized, hundreds of Bibles and crosses desecrated, and over 320 Christian homes were ransacked and burned, traumatizing women and children.
Aware of the common practice of radical mobs and sensing the gravity of the situation, the Christian families fled their homes barefoot for their lives, either to their relatives in nearby city/villages or seeking refuge in sugar cane fields overnight under the open sky. A survivor who spent the night under the open sky added that there were also girls and women who lay flat on the roofs of the homes in scorching heat to hide from vandals setting fire to their belongings out in the street.
Police were then deployed into this highly explosive religious conflict and tense law and order situation. However, the police remained mute spectators as the houses were ransacked and churches and properties set on fire. Because of the continued impunity to the crimes committed in the name of religion, extremists and terrorists are becoming emboldened.
According to CAPC sources on the ground, the law enforcing agencies on the ground were unable or unwilling to control the situation, standing as mere spectators. It was further revealed by local Christian brothers that the accused, Raja Amir Saleem and Rocky Saleem, the accuser, had a prior dispute over half a million rupees deal for which accused family was asking the accuser (name unknown) to pay back. It appears that the blasphemy accusation was a plot against him. The recent reports into the Jaranwala probe have also pointed to a meticulous plot behind the incidents of ransacking of property and monetary dealing.
The Assistant Commissioner, Mr. Shaukat Masih, who is a Christian, had his office vandalized and burned and was also given a transfer taking effect immediately under the immense pressure of the mob. A First Investigative Report was lodged against the persons accused of blasphemy under Sections 295B [pertaining to the desecration of the Holy Quran] and 295C [use of derogatory remarks…in respect of the Holy Prophet] of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Yet, apart from condemnations by politicians and authorities, no case has yet been registered against the instigators of violence and against the Muslims who burned the churches and the Bibles.
The residents of the community have started returning to their burnt and empty homes. Their valuables were looted, and the remaining contents were burned. The electricity has not yet been restored.
More than 5,000 Christians live in Jaranwala, most of them sanitary workers on meager wages who occupy cramped homes shared by up to 18 relatives. As panic spread across the neighborhoods, it is reported that there were some Muslims who also rushed to the streets to warn and shelter their Christian neighbors.
Christians constitute around 1.3% of Pakistan’s 250 million population and have been especially vulnerable to such false accusations. In recent years, neighborhoods in cities of Lahore, Gojra, Jaranwala and the capital city of Islamabad have been victims of arson or assault following blasphemy allegations. Currently, these allegations are regularly weaponized as a means of targeting opposition during conflicts.
CAPC calls its friends and well-wishers to pray for the safety of Christians in Pakistan. There is an urgent need for the relief, recovery and rehabilitation of all victim families who are left with nothing but hope of restoration in God. Let’s be the compassionate heart and consoling hand of Christ and help CAPC reach our persecuted brothers and sisters in Jaranwala with the initial supplying of food, clothing, and bedding.
Remains of a burned Bible