Alleged blasphemy triggers violent mob attack on Pakistani Christians

Police in central Pakistan said on Saturday that hundreds of Muslims violently attacked a Christian minority settlement over allegations of blasphemy, leaving several people injured.

The mob attack took place in the city of Sargodha in Punjab province, the country’s most populous.

Witnesses and minority rights activists reported that protesters looted and burned down the house and a small shoe factory of a 70-year-old Christian. They accused him of desecrating Islam’s holy book, the Koran. He was severely beaten and injured, his relatives reported.

A police statement said emergency services responded promptly to the crisis and rescued at least 10 Christians and brought them to safety before dispersing the crowd. Several of those rescued sustained injuries and were treated at a local hospital.

The police statement said that ten security forces were also injured in clashes with angry demonstrators. The deployment of hundreds of additional forces in and around the Christian settlement helped defuse religious tensions, it added.

Senior provincial police officials have reported the arrest of up to 20 suspects in connection with the mob attack and announced more arrests as part of ongoing operations. They said an investigation into the blasphemy allegations was underway.

Violent mob attacks on religious minorities are not uncommon in Muslim-majority Pakistan.

In August 2023, thousands of people attacked and burned 21 churches and damaged more than 90 Christian buildings in Punjab’s Jaranwala district after accusing two Christian brothers of blasphemy. Several Christian families fled their homes due to the violence. Police arrested more than 250 people, including the three Christians accused of desecrating a Quran.

Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan. Accusations alone have led to dozens of suspects being lynched by mobs – some even in police custody. Insulting the Koran or Islamic beliefs is punishable by death under the country’s blasphemy laws, but no one has ever been executed.

Critics have long called for reform of blasphemy laws, as they are often abused to settle personal scores. Hundreds of suspects, mostly Muslims, are in Pakistani prisons because external pressure prevents judges from continuing their trials.

“Although the majority of those arrested for blasphemy were Muslims, religious minorities were disproportionately affected,” the U.S. State Department said in its annual report on human rights in Pakistan.

“Lower courts often failed to meet basic standards of proof in blasphemy cases. Civil society groups and lawyers attributed this to fear of retaliation from religious groups if they acquitted the defendants of blasphemy. Most of those convicted spent years in prison before higher courts eventually overturned their convictions or ordered their release,” the report said.