KARACHI: Members of Minority Rights March and Aurat March, the Archbishop of Karachi and the Bishop of the Holy Trinity Cathedral on Thursday condemned the attacks on churches and residences the Christian community members in Jaranwala by an angry mob, following an alleged incident of blasphemy in this town of Faisalabad district.

Members of the Christian community also staged a protest outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC).

Addressing a press conference at the KPC, speakers from Christian, Hindu and Sikh communities including Pastors Ghazala and Luke Victor, Sheema Kirmani, Bhewish Kumar, Safina Javed, Prof Manoj Chauhan and Normi Basheer, alleged that the government had failed to protect minorities in the country and that the recent incident, in which 21 churches had been ransacked and houses burnt, was an indication that minorities living in the country were not regarded as equal citizens.

They claimed that Pakistan had become a country where mob ruled and did whatever it wanted and that the state had failed to implement its writ.

Demand security, fair probe, compensation to victims and rebuilding of destroyed churches and homes

The speakers asked for how long the government would keep ‘just condemning’ such incidents without taking action against the culprits and demanded that all those involved in the attacks should be punished according to law.

They said such incidents kept happening because the perpetrators had never been punished.

Had strict action been taken against those involved in such attacks in the past, the incidents like Jaranwala would not have taken place, they added.

They said it was time that strict action was taken before any other incident like this took place.

The speakers said that the claim of blasphemy against two local Christian youths, arrested for writing blasphemous words, was a baseless allegation as they were illiterate and could not read or write.

They claimed that the incident was an organised and pre-planned attack.

“The blasphemy laws are often misused and that this time, too, blasphemy card is pla­y­ed by political parties to increase their vote bank,” they said.

There was a big question mark on the competence of the Punjab police and law enforcers after these incidents as they failed to stop the mob violence, they said.

The speakers demanded registration of FIRs against those involved in the attacks, and called for a fair investigation into the incident. “A task force should be set up to hold the inquiry also covering the role of law enforcers and clerics who instigated the mob,” they said. They also demanded that the Punjab government should compensate all affec­ted community members whose houses were ransacked, and get rebuilt the churches and other properties destroyed in the attack.

They announced a protest and candle-lit vigil to be held at 5pm on Saturday at Teen Talwar, Clifton.

Condemnation by churches, bishops

The Archbishop of Catholic Archdiocese Church Karachi Benny Travas also condemned the attacks.

He said followers of his religion could never even think of disrespecting other religions.

The bishop said it came as a shock to him that on August 14, they (Christians) were remin­ded that Pakistan belonged to all Pakistanis but only two days later they had again been confronted with hatred and rage.

Addressing a press conference at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Karachi, Bishop of Diocese of Karachi and Balochistan Fredrick John condemned the attack on the Christian community and said that the country had been a victim of religious extremism for the past many years and that the Christian community was the most affected by that.

They asked the government to show solidarity with the Christian community and called on the president and the caretaker prime minister to provide justice to the victims and take strong action against the perpetrators of the attacks and their accomplices.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2023