Punjab, Aug 17: Radical Islamists have burned down eight churches and several homes of Christians were vandalised on Wednesday in Pakistan’s Punjab province after accusations of blasphemy against Islam.
The National Commission for Human Rights said informed that the number of churches burnt “has risen to eight,” in an update on Wednesday, calling the situation "sad and shameful." Earlier, it also said, "Countless Bibles burnt, many families in hiding. Situation is sad & shameful. Blasphemy laws have repeatedly been misused with impunity. Police must take swift & strong against perpetrators of this violence."
Over 100 people have been arrested for their involvement in riots targeting Christians over alleged blasphemy in Pakistan's Faisalabad, Punjab province. Speaking on this, a Punjab government spokesperson said that the provincial government has also ordered a high-level inquiry into the incident.
Reports suggest that two Christian men were charged by local police in the town of Jaranwala on the grounds of “desecrating the holy Quran and abusing the Prophet Mohammed.” They had been booked under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.
Pakistani Christian communities are regularly targeted with the country’s strict blasphemy laws, which activists say have historically been manipulated to persecute minorities and isolate them from public life.
In a statement Wednesday, the assistant commissioner for Faisalabad, where the town is located, called for the deployment of armed forces to support enforcing law and order, describing the situation as “sensitive and vulnerable.”
Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar condemned the violence, writing in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “stern action would be taken against those who violate law and target minorities.”
Riina Kionka, the EU ambassador to Pakistan, said the reports were “disturbing.” "The degree to which a society’s minorities feel safe, in Pakistan, in the European Union, around the world, is a measure of respect for the rule of law, for tolerance of diversity, a core EU value,” she posted on X on Wednesday.
President Bishop of the Church of Pakistan Azad Marshall said Christians were being tortured and harassed.
Bishop Azad Marshall, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, "Words fail me as I write this. We, Bishops, Priests and lay people are deeply pained and distressed at the Jaranwala incident in the Faisalabad District in Pakistan. A church building is being burnt as I type this message. Bibles have been desecrated and Christians have been tortured and harassed having been falsely accused of violating the Holy Quran”.
“We cry out for justice and action from law enforcement and those who dispense justice and the safety of all citizens to intervene immediately and assure us that our lives are valuable in our own homeland that has just celebrated independence and freedom,” he added.
Pakistan is among the countries where blasphemy is a crime punishable by the death sentence. In 2013, more than 100 homes of Christians were set ablaze by outraged Muslims in Lahore’s Badami Bagh community, after police arrested a 20-year-old man accused of speaking against the Prophet Mohammed.
Three years earlier, a mother of five from Punjab was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to hang, after she was accused of defiling the name of the Prophet Mohammed. Asia Bibi was freed from death row in 2018, after she won her appeal against the conviction and death sentence.
Notably, minorities in Pakistan have undergone a series of persecution and targeted attacks over the past years.
