Police in eastern Pakistan arrested 129 people overnight after a mob angered over a reported desecration of the Koran attacked churches and homes of Christians, prompting authorities to summon soldiers to restore order, officials said yesterday.
The Christians in the city of Jaranwala in Faisalabad District quickly moved to safer places as the mob rampaged on Wednesday.
There were no casualties reported.
Photo: AFP
They slowly returned home to see the destruction yesterday.
At least one church was burned, four were damaged and two dozen homes were torched or badly damaged.
“We were sitting at home when suddenly we heard that a mob is coming, and it is burning homes and attacking churches,” said Shazia Amjad as she wept outside her torched home.
She told reporters that the mob burned household items and furniture, and some of her possessions were stolen while she was staying with her family in a safer place.
Amjad said that the rioters sprinkled gasoline to burn homes.
Others described similar ordeals and expressed bewilderment.
Azeem Masih wept as he sat outside his burned home on a street where several were razed.
Some of the rioters brought vehicles to take household items after burning their furniture and other belongings, he said.
“Why did they do it to us? We had not done anything wrong,” he said.
Local priest Khalid Mukhtar told reporters earlier that he believed most of Jaranwala’s 17 churches had been attacked and his own home was damaged.
Delegations of Muslim clerics arrived in Jaranwala to help calm the situation as troops and police patrolled the area.
Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister, Anwaarul-ul-Haq Kakar, ordered police to ensure that the rioters are arrested.
Rizwan Khan, the regional police chief, said that 129 suspects had been arrested and the situation was under control.
The rampage started after some local Muslims said they had seen a local Christian, Raja Amir, and his friend tearing out pages from a Koran, throwing them on the ground and writing insulting remarks on other pages.
Police said that they were trying to arrest Amir, who fled into hiding, to determine whether he had desecrated Islam’s holy book.
The mob quickly gathered and began attacking multiple churches and several Christian homes, Khan said.
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