KARACHI: A large number of civil society activists and members of Christian community held a demonstration on Saturday, urging the authorities to protect them from the extremists who attacked and damaged a church in the old city area on Friday evening.

On their part, police registered a case against some unnamed assailants.

Responding to Dawn’s queries, Father Mohen Victor of the St Francis Church said two wedding ceremonies were being held and 200 to 300 people were attending them when a big mob gathered outside the church and started pelting stones and attacking it with sticks.

The mob entered the church compound and damaged the cars and motorcycles parked there. Flowerpots, windows and doors of the church were also damaged.

He said that as soon as the mob entered the compound the people gathered in the church went upstairs and turned off the lights.

The attack continued for more than 90 minutes. The community members in the church called their contacts outside and police arrived soon afterwards. Gunshots were heard from outside the church and the mob dispersed.

Father Victor said the reason for the attack could not be ascertained.

A civil society activist, Zahid Farooq, who participated in the demonstration held at the press club by the National Commission for Justice and Peace, quoted the organisation’s chief, Father Saleh Diego, as saying it was the third attack on the church in Old Haji Camp area, near the KMC workshop.

The protesters chanted slogans and demanded security for the minority communities and their places of worship. They said the attackers should be brought to book.

Police said they had registered a case against unknown people who had attacked the Catholic church.

They said people of the locality, including a number of youngsters, had taken to the streets on Friday evening in protest against power outages. They chanted slogans against the Karachi Electricity Supply Company (KESC) and pelted vehicles on the area’s main road with stones.

“The Saint Francis Catholic Church is in the same area,” Napier police station SHO Inspector Aslam Gujjar said.

“During the protest, some protesters and a few people associated with the church engaged in a heated argument that turned the situation ugly. There was a scuffle between the two sides and some protesters made their way into the church to ransack it.”

He said police had registered an FIR (169/2012) in the case. “We believe the incident was not religiously motivated but a dispute between a few individuals that turned violent. We have identified a few suspects and efforts are being made for their arrest,” the SHO said.