A Catholic bishop in Pakistan has condemned the inaction of the authorities within the country, noting that two years after “the worst incident against Christians” in Pakistan’s history, nothing has been done.
Bishop Indrias Rehmat was referring to a highly coordinated set of attacks carried out by Muslim mobs within the Punjab’s Jaranwala district on 16 August 2023. The mobs were incited to violence by false claims that a pair of Christian brothers had torn pages from a Quran.
The resulting violence led to extensive property damage, with 26 churches, 80 Christian homes and quite a lot of church halls, priest’s houses and Christian gravestones affected. Fortunately, there have been no reported deaths.
Over 5,200 people were accused of involvement within the violence, with over 380 arrested, lots of whom were released on bail. Two months ago Faisalabad’s Anti-Terrorism Court acquitted 10 people accused of burning one in every of the churches. So far not a single person has been convicted over the violence.
Bishop Rehmat, of the Diocese of Faisalabad, told Aid to the Church in Need, “Justice has not been done. The police haven’t done their duty. Nobody has been punished and no person has been handled properly. At this stage, we don’t see any hope of any perpetrator being punished.”
According to the bishop, local extremists have been threatening and harassing Christians in a bid to silence them, but that many are not any longer intimidated.
“What’s modified over the past two years for the reason that attacks is that individuals have now change into able to fight for his or her rights. They say we must always shout and scream,” he said.
Feeding Christian anger, the bishop said, is the proven fact that the one individuals who have faced criminal sanctions thus far are Christians. Ehsan Masih was found guilty of sharing a picture of a damaged Quran on social media, while in April Pervaiz Masih – no relation – was sentenced to death for allegedly committing the unique act of Quran tearing and blaming it on the 2 brothers, Rocky and Raja Masih – also no relation – as a part of a vendetta.
Local Christian leaders have forged doubt on the validity of those convictions and have also lamented that government compensation has lead in lots of cases to the sub-standard substitute of destroyed homes and churches.
Pakistan’s bishops described the attack two years ago because the “worst” anti-Christian incident in Pakistan’s history. While it was possibly essentially the most coordinated and essentially the most destructive by way of church and personal property, sadly other incidents in Pakistan vie for the title.
The 2009 Gojra riots result in the destruction of two churches, dozens of homes and the deaths of eight people, seven of whom were burned alive. In 2013 the Taliban bombed a church in Peshawar during a Sunday service, killing 85 and injuring over a 100.
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