KARACHI, Sept 22: While most protests from local Christian community against the deadly Church attack in Peshawar remained peaceful, participants in a protest demonstration turned violent as they pelted moving vehicles with stones, torched a motorcycle and clashed with law-enforcement agencies near Hasan Square on Sunday.

Police and witnesses said that scores of protesters came out of their homes in Essa Nagri, a predominantly Christian neighbourhood, lit bonfires on Sir Shah Suleman Road, threw stones on moving vehicles and blocked the road for vehicular traffic.

The situation caused a traffic mess, as vehicles coming from Liqauatabad towards Hasan Square were diverted from Baloch Hotel near Essa Nagri.

A parked motorcycle, owned by a cameraman of a private TV, was also torched.

The situation continued for two hours and a heavy contingent of police, backed by Rangers, reached the scene and tried to disperse the protesters. However, some people among the protesters fired into the air and the police also retaliated.

The police resorted to teargas shelling and their armoured personnel carriers entered the congested Essa Nagri area to chase and arrest the protesters.

Witnesses said that the police after a ‘door-to-door’ search operation arrested several people even from the rooftops of their residences.

“The police reacted when the protest turned violent and the protesters fired into the air,” said DIG-East Munir Sheikh. “The police also fired into the air and fired teargas shells to disperse the mob and prevent the situation from deteriorating further.”

He said that the police chased the protesters and detained around 23 of them. However, on the intervention and assurances of their community leaders, the held suspects were released, said the DIG.

Rescuers said that a passer-by, identified as Abdul Rehman, 41, sustained a bullet wound and was shifted from the troubled area to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

Meanwhile, other peaceful protests were held on Sharea Faisal near Gora Qabristan, on the National Highway near Malir Burf Khana, Natha Khan Goth, Taiser Town and Pahar Ganj.

Later, the protesters gathered outside the Karachi Press Club, where they chanted slogans against the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf-led government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa over their failure to protect innocent people, including Christians.

The protesters carried banners inscribed with demands ‘stop violence against Christians,’ ‘protect religious minorities of Pakistan’, etc.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Church announced three days mourning, including one day of fasting and prayers on Monday, for the victims of the twin blasts in Sindh, according to a statement.

In a statement issued from the office of the National Commission for Justice and Peace of Karachi, Archdiocese, Fr. Saleh Diego said that it was not a coincidence that after the Council of Islamic Ideology had unanimously proposed an amendment in the blasphemy law; ‘the fundamentalist religious elements have attempted to sabotage the move by carrying out suicide bombing on the Christian community right in their worship place’.

“The incident will bring a bad name to Pakistan as well as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who is going to address the UN General Assembly and meeting with world leaders in New York,” he added.

He demanded that Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry take suo motu action against the Peshawar incident.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Karachi, Archbishop Joseph Coutts also urged the government to probe into the incident and bring perpetrators of this heinous crime to book.

The president of the Christian Federation of Pakistan, Michael Javed, said: “We hold a particular mindset responsible for the Church attack and this mindset is aga-inst Pakistan, minorities, government, democracy and even voting system and who wanted to impose their particular system in the country”.