In response to allegations that two men desecrated the Quran, authorities allege that thousands of Muslims in a Pakistani city have burned down at least four churches and vandalised the homes of Christians.
Residents of Jaranwala, in eastern Punjab, claimed that up to a dozen structures belonging to churches were also harmed.
More than 100 protesters have been detained by police, who have also opened an investigation into the violence.
Authorities claim that things are still tight in Jaranwala.
According to Reuters, police have also denounced two local Christians for violating the death-sentence-carrying blasphemy statute.
Although no one has been punished in accordance with the law, hundreds have in the past been murdered by mobs after being falsely accused of blasphemy.
A man from Sri Lanka was slain and his body was burnt on fire two years ago after he was accused of blasphemy. Six persons were killed and over 60 homes were destroyed by a mob in Punjab’s Gorja area in 2009 after they were accused of disrespecting Islam.
During their colonial rule, the British enacted a blasphemy-punishing statute in the nineteenth century. But in the 1980s, law enforcement imposed harsher penalties for infractions, including the death penalty for anybody who insults Islam.
The majority of people in Pakistan are Muslims—about 96%. Other nations, such as Iran, Brunei, and Mauritania, also execute people for defaming a religion.
According to a local official who spoke to BBC Urdu, as stories of the two men reportedly desecrating the Quran, the holy book of Islam, spread on social media early on Wednesday morning, authorities received complaints concerning protests and fires.
According to the authorities, blasphemous writing was purportedly found on torn pages of the holy book that were discovered close to a Christian settlement.
The reports went viral on social media and in the city, upsetting the Muslim population. Mobs attacked and pillaged Christian homeowners’ homes during the ensuing bloodshed.
Christian Yassir Bhatti, age 31, was one of many who had to leave their houses.
He told the AFP news agency, “They broke the windows and doors and took out refrigerators, sofas, chairs, and other household objects to pile them up in front of the Church to be burned.
“They were ruthless; they burned and desecrated Bibles as well.”
Social media videos show demonstrators demolishing Christian structures as it appears that cops are looking on.
The alleged blasphemy was denounced by Punjab province’s communications minister, Amir Mir, who also said that thousands of police officers had been dispatched to the scene and that dozens of people had been detained.
According to a government source who spoke to Reuters, the majority of the mob was made up of members of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) political party. The TLP has refuted all accusations.
Anwar ul-Haq Kakar, the acting prime minister, urged immediate action against the perpetrators of the violence.
The adjoining city of Lahore’s bishop, a Pakistani named Azad Marshall, expressed that the Christian community was “deeply pained and distressed” by the happenings.
X, formerly known as Twitter, is where he issued the statement. “We cry out for justice and action from law enforcement and those who dispense justice, and the safety of all citizens to intervene immediately and assure us that our lives are valuable in our own homeland,” he wrote.