AP NEWS
Muslims in eastern Pakistan went on a rampage Wednesday over allegations that a Christian man had desecrated the Quran, demolishing the man’s house, burning churches and damaging several other homes, police and local Christians said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The scale of the violence prompted the government to deploy additional police forces and send in the army to help restore order.
The attacks in Jaranwala, in the district of Faisalabad in Punjab province, erupted after some Muslims living in the area claimed they had seen a local Christian, Raja Amir, and his friend tearing out pages from a Quran, throwing them on the ground and writing insulting remarks on other pages.
Police chief Rizwan Khan said this had angered the local Muslims. A mob gathered and began attacking multiple churches and several Christian homes, burning furniture and other household items. Some members of the Christian community fled their homes to escape the mob.
Police eventually intervened, firing into the air and wielding batons before dispersing the attackers with the help of Muslim clerics and elders. Authorities also said they have started launching raids in an effort to find all the perpetrators. Dozens of rioters were arrested.
Police chief Bilal Mehmood told reporters they were also looking for Amir, who went into hiding to escape the mob, and would detain him to determine whether he had desecrated the Quran.
Videos and photos posted on social media show an angry mob descending upon a church, throwing pieces of bricks and burning it. In another video, two other churches are attacked, their windows broken as attackers throw furniture out and set it on fire.
Several policemen are seen in the videos watching the situation without intervening to stop the vandalism.
In yet another video, a man is seen climbing to the roof of the church and removing the steel cross after repeatedly hitting it with a hammer as the crowd down on the road cheered him on.
Khalid Mukhtar, a local priest, said most of the Christians living in the area had fled to safer places. “Even my house was burned,” he added.
Mukhtar said there are 17 churches in Jaranwala and he believes most of them were attacked. The authorities did not immediately confirm that figure.
Father Gulshan Barkat, who teaches church history at the National Catholic Institute of Theology in Karachi, described the blasphemy allegations as a “false accusation” and said the local mosques were also to blame because loudspeakers erected on minarets had earlier in the day called on Muslims to gather and “attack the churches and Christian community.”
“The emotion of our Muslim brethren flares up very quickly, even at hearsay,” he said…
