Police say a Muslim mob has attacked a Christian locality in Pakistan’s japanese Punjab province, burning a church, damaging two others and demolishing a person’s home after accusing him of desecrating the pages of Islam’s holy guide
On this photograph supplied by the district police workplace, a police officer pours water right into a burning home in a Christian neighborhood following an offended mob assault in Jaranwala close to Faisalabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. A Muslim mob stormed a Christian locality in Pakistan’s japanese Punjab province, burning three church buildings and demolishing the home of a person after accusing him of desecrating the pages of Islam’s holy guide, police stated. (District Police Workplace by way of AP)
The Related Press
MULTAN, Pakistan — A Muslim mob on Wednesday stormed a Christian locality in Pakistan’s japanese Punjab province, burning one church, damaging two others and demolishing the home of a person after accusing him of desecrating the pages of Islam’s holy guide, police stated.
The assault occurred within the district of Faisalabad in japanese Punjab province, native police chief Rizwan Khan stated. He stated the mob attacked the Christian colony after among the Muslims dwelling close by accused an area Christian, Raja Amir, and his pal of desecrating pages of the Quran.
Khan stated the accusations angered Muslims who had begun gathering there, and the demonstrators then began attacking a number of church buildings earlier than they had been dispersed by police swinging batons. Authorities try to revive order with assist from elders and clerics within the space of Jaranwala the place the assault occurred, he stated.
Police say they’re registering {cases} in opposition to those that desecrated the Quran.
He stated all these Muslims who had been concerned within the assaults on church buildings and the properties belonging to Christians would even be traced and arrested. “Our first precedence was to avoid wasting the lives of all the Christians. Now we have deployed extra police on the Christian colony,” he stated.
Beneath Pakistan’s blasphemy legal guidelines, anybody discovered responsible of insulting Islam or Islamic spiritual figures will be sentenced to demise. Whereas authorities have but to hold out a demise sentence for blasphemy, simply the accusation may cause riots.
