Pakistani Christian community attacked after blasphemy accusation
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People gathering after a mob attacked members of a Christian community in Sargodha district on May 25.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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LAHORE – At least 10 members of a minority Christian community were rescued on May 25 after a Muslim crowd attacked their settlement in eastern Pakistan because of a blasphemy accusation, police and a community leader said.
The crowd, which accused the Christian group of blasphemy, also hurled stones and bricks at the police, said Mr Shariq Kamal, the police chief of Sargodha district.
At least one house and a small shoe factory were set on fire by protesters who gathered after neighbours alleged that the Quran had been desecrated by a minority community member, according to a police spokesman and Mr Akmal Bhatti, a Christian leader.
“They burnt one house” and several Christians were badly beaten, Mr Bhatti said.
A large contingent of police cordoned off the settlement, Mr Kamal said, adding that the crowd had been pushed back. One member of the Christian community who was taken to hospital was later said to be in a stable condition.
Some 25 protesters have been arrested, said police official Assad Malhi, adding that 11 police officers were injured during the operation to rescue the Christian community members from the crowd.
The situation had calmed down by late evening, with leaders from both sides calling for peace, police said.
A Christian rights group, Minority Rights March, said a 70-year-old man accused of the blasphemy was beaten and dragged by the mob.
It said video footage showed that the police did not intervene. The police have denied the claim.
Videos posted on social media showed protesters looting items from burning properties. Others were seen throwing the items in a heap on fire in a street.
Police securing the scene after a violent mob attacked a Christian man over alleged blasphemy in Sargodha, Pakistan, on May 25.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Mr Bhatti said the videos showed footage from the scene.
Reuters could not independently verify the images.
The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said the Christian community was “at grave risk to their lives at the hands of the charged mobs”.
Blasphemy is a sensitive subject in conservative Muslim-majority Pakistan, where just an accusation can lead to a street lynching.
Human rights groups say Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws are often misused to settle personal scores.
While blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan, no one has been executed by the state for it, though numerous accused people have been lynched by outraged mobs.
A Muslim crowd attacked a Christian community in eastern Pakistan in 2023, vandalising several churches and setting scores of houses on fire after accusing two of its members of desecrating the Quran. REUTERS
