Following a day of blasphemy charges, hundreds of Muslim men rampaged through a Christian neighborhood in central Pakistan, torching churches and pillaging homes. On Thursday, police were patrolling the area.
After rumors of Christians defiling the Koran circulated and people were compelled to evacuate their homes, violence erupted in Jaranwala, a suburb of the industrial city of Faisalabad.
More than 100 people were detained, according to a representative for the Punjab province government, who also said that police were looking to detain anyone accused of defiling the Muslim holy book.
“The desecration of the Holy Quran has been made and emotions of the Muslims have been injured. An order has been issued for the arrest of the accused,” a statement said.
Social media posts featured hundreds of people racing through the streets with sticks and rocks as smoke rose from churches.
A 31-year-old Christian named Yasir Bhatti left his home in a little passageway near to a church that the mob had pillaged.
“They broke the windows, doors and took out fridges, sofas, chairs and other household items to pile them up in front of the church to be burnt. They also burnt and desecrated Bibles, they were ruthless,” he told AFP by phone.
In one video, crowds cheer and demand punishment for the accused blasphemers as a cross is torn from the top of a church.
The boundary walls of a Christian cemetery were vandalised, police said.
“The crowd inflicted heavy damage on the area including to homes of Christians, and many churches,” Ahad Noor, a government official, told AFP.
According to videos released on social media, local Muslim leaders urged their followers to protest over the loudspeakers in the mosque.
“Christians have desecrated the Holy Koran. All the clerics, all the Muslims should unite and gather in front of the mosque. Better to die if you don’t care about Islam,” one cleric is heard saying.
Pakistan’s newly appointed caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said on X that he was “gutted” by what was happening.
