No fewer than two churches in Punjab province’s Jaranwala town have been attacked by an angry mob who have accused two Christian residents of blasphemy.
Videos posted on social media which was obtained by Africa Today News, New York showed a mob of hundreds of people setting fire to the Saint Paul Catholic Church and the Salvation Army Church while another mob attacked private homes, torching them and shattering windows.
Mohammed Naved, a Punjab provincial police inspector, said authorities were doing their best to control the mob in Jaranwala, 115 km (71 miles) from Lahore, the provincial capital.
‘We are undertaking all legal measures as required in the situation,’ Naved told reporters.
Police also filed a report against two local Christian residents under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws.
Africa Today News, New York reports that later on Wednesday, Punjab’s caretaker information minister, Amir Mir, said that more than 100 people were arrested.
Paramilitary Rangers have been deployed ‘in connection with the religious conflict and sensitive situation of law and order at Tehsil Jaranwala District Faisalabad’, according to an official statement.
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The controversy erupted after torn pages of the Quran, the holy book for Muslims, were discovered near the Christian colony with alleged blasphemous content written on them.
The pages were taken to a local religious leader, who reportedly urged Muslims to protest and demand that the culprits be arrested.
Shahid Mehmood, a resident of Jaranwala who owns a mobile shop about 50 metres from the Salvation Army Church, told reporters, ‘I reached my shop around 10am, and there were already hundreds of people gathered outside the church. Given the situation, I decided to close 10 minutes after opening.’
Mehmood added that a crowd also gathered around the Christian colony near the church. It was later attacked, and a few smaller churches were damaged, he said.
Akmal Bhatti, chairman of Minorities Alliance Pakistan, condemned the incident and said the angry mob used the blasphemy laws to justify torching the private homes of innocent people.
Bhatti, a lawyer, said more than 150 families resided in the Christian colony near the Salvation Army Church, and as the situation worsened, women and children evacuated.
Blasphemy is a sensitive issue in Pakistan as mere accusations can lead to widespread violence.
Earlier this month, a teacher was killed in Turbat in the southern province of Balochistan after being accused of blasphemy during a lecture. In February this year, an angry mob snatched a suspect from his prison cell in the rural district of Nankana and lynched him for allegedly desecrating pages of the Quran.
Rights groups say Pakistan’s blasphemy laws have often been used for personal reasons.