Report in Dawn, October 23rd, 2023LAHORE: On the instructions of Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Usman Anwar, the police ensured foolproof security arrangements for Christian prayer programmes in churches across the province on Sunday. The police remained on high alert and performed their duties diligently, allowing Christian citizens to conduct their prayers in a peaceful environment and participate in their holy prayer ceremonies. Earlier, Mr Anwar directed regional police officers and district police officers…
Posts tagged as “churches”
by Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry in Dawn, August 27th, 2023The writer is a former foreign secretary of PakistanJARANWALA, a small town near Lahore, has shot into prominence, but for the wrong reasons. What happened there on Aug 16, 2023 represents another low in our history of communal intolerance, with local community leaders and law-enforcement authorities appearing totally helpless in preventing the mob from targeting dozens of Christian families, their houses and churches. For a country whose…
Editorial in Pakistan Today, August 17th, 2023The attack on three churches and a number of homes by a mob in Jaranwala, indicates that matters which had seemed to have gone out of control, have not improved. Once again, a mob has been inflamed to violence by a cleric’s diatribe against an alleged blasphemer. After the situation calmed somewhat, it transpired that the accused had been taken into custody by the police, that one church had…
by Tariq Saeed in Dawn, August 22nd, 2023TOBA TEK SINGH: Interim Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Monday visited Jaranwala, days after violent mobs destroyed dozens of houses and churches over allegations of blasphemy, to express solidarity with the Christian community and distribute compensation cheques among families whose houses were burnt down by the frenzied mob. According to estimates compiled by Faisalabad’s district administration, at least 22 churches ransacked by mobs suffered damages to the…
by Areesha Rehan | Hawwa Fazal | Wara Irfan in Dawn online, August 18, 2023On Wednesday, August 16, a mob stormed and vandalised five churches, several homes of Christian families and even a cemetery in Faisalabad’s Jaranwala district. The violence erupted after some locals alleged that several desecrated pages of the Holy Quran had been found near a house at Cinema Chowk in Jaranwala, where two Christian brothers resided. Soon after, members of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik…
report in The News, Aug 18, 2023The Catholic Church has condemned the burning and destruction of churches and homes of the Christian Community in Jaranwala and wondered with great shock and disbelief how such an incident could happen just two days after the country celebrated Independence Day. A statement issued by Archbishop of Karachi Benny Travas on Thursday said that in August 2023, when we were reminded that Pakistan belongs to all Pakistanis, we have…
by Malik Muhammad Ashraf in The Nation, August 18, 2023Reportedly, a mob inflamed by a diatribe against an alleged blasphemer by a cleric attacked several churches and homes of the Christian community in Jaranwala on Wednesday. Fortunately, no casualties have been reported. An editorial in a national daily revealed that not only were the churches vandalized, but many copies of the Bible were also desecrated by the attacking mob. Unfortunately, this incident of mob justice…
Editorial in The Nation, Aug 17, 2023Yet again, a tragedy has taken place as an enraged mob vandalised multiple churches in the Jaranwala tehsil of Faisalabad over allegations of blasphemy. The impunity with which these acts are carried out in the presence of law enforcement personnel shows that these mobs and extremist groups have only grown stronger with conviction, and that is not without the state’s help. Condemnations and vows to hold the culprits accountable…