TRANSCRIPT
A Muslim mob has attacked a Christian area in east Pakistan, burning a church, damaging four others and demolishing a man's house after accusing him of blasphemy after he allegedly desecrated Islam’s holy book.
Video footage shot in the district of Faisalabad in the Punjab province shows a number of Muslims atop a church destroying it with sledgehammers as it burned.
A local police chief says Wednesday's attacks happened after some Muslims living nearby said a local Christian and his friend had torn out some pages of a Quran and written insulting remarks on others in red.
The police chief says this angered Muslims who gathered at the location and went on a rampage, attacking multiple churches.
Bilal Mehmood Sulery is a police officer.
He has called for calm to allow police to do their job.
“If you calm down and make peace and stop violence, I can assure you that we will arrest the culprit who is involved in this burning of Quran. My team is already there and looking for the culprit. After the arrest, we will file a case against him and let you - and the clerics standing here – know about our developments and we will fulfill our duty with dignity.”
Police eventually intervened, firing into the air and wielding batons before dispersing the attackers with the help of Muslim clerics and elders.
Father Gulshan Barkat, a professor of church history at the National Catholic Institute of Theology, Karachi, says the Muslim mob attack on churches in eastern Pakistan were fueled by local mosques.
"Announcements from the speakers, loudspeakers of the mosques inviting the Muslims to gather and attack Christian churches and the community, their houses. And from 9:00 it began and then they continued to ransack the churches. ... We heard that rangers would be called, but so far there is no rangers at the scene. So the houses are being ransacked, looted, burned. The situation is very, very tense at the moment."
Father Gulshan claims the blasphemy allegations are unsubstantiated and that Muslims had an ulterior motive.
"So far, the cases which have emerged, so-called blasphemy, pertain to blasphemy laws. Most of those, a 100% of those cases were false, falsely accused. And maybe they wanted to grab the land. They wanted to chase out the Christian community from the area."
Local resident Mohsin Iqbal is Muslim and tried to be the voice of reason.
‘One-or-two people involved in the blasphemy does not mean we punish a whole community. We appeal to the government, police and chief minister of Punjab to take strict action against those involved in this, because Muslims are being hurt due to this act.’
Dozens of Christians in Karachi protested following the attacks.
Shazia Adnan was among them.
“The homes of our Christian community were burned in Faisalabad today, our churches were attacked, and our religious artifacts were destroyed. This isn't the first time such incidents have happened in Pakistan. They occur frequently. We have always sought peace. Today, we gather to urge the Punjab government to protect our people. For the love of God, provide justice to our community and ensure our right to live.”
Later in the day, Muslim residents protested against the delay in the arrest of the person who had allegedly committed the blasphemy.
This Muslim protestor did not give his name.
“Our Punjab police is doing nothing. When a man smuggles cocaine, he is apprehended within hours. But the person who has committed blasphemy has not been arrested after 24 hours. The police should side with the Muslims.”
Pakistani authorities say they have started launching raids in an effort to find all the perpetrators.
Dozens of rioters have been arrested so far.
The US State Department's spokesperson Vedant Patel has called on Pakistani authorities to restore calm.
“We are deeply concerned that churches and homes were targeted in response to a reported Koran desecration in Pakistan. We support peaceful freedom of expression and the right to freedom of religion and belief for everybody. And as we have previously said, we are always concerned of incidents of religiously motivated violence. Violence or the threat of violence is never an acceptable form of expression. And we urge Pakistani authorities to conduct a full investigation into these allegations and call for calm for all of those involved.”
