Group Attack on Christians in Eastern Pakistan Under the Pretext of 'Insulting Sacred Beliefs'

In an attack by hundreds of Muslims on the residence of a Christian minority in eastern Pakistan, at least one house and a small shoe factory were set on fire, and several Christians were injured and taken to the hospital. One leader of the Christian community and the police in the district of Sargodha confirmed that at least five members of the Christian minority who were injured in the assault were rescued. According to Reuters, Shoaib Kamal, the police chief of Sargodha district, stated that the Muslim crowd, which attacked the Christian group and accused them of 'insulting sacred beliefs and blasphemy,' also threw stones and bricks at the police. The police reported that with the help of a large number of their forces, they managed to disperse the angry crowd by surrounding the area and transferred five injured Christians to the hospital. The Muslim protesters gathered after a neighbor claimed that a member of the Christian minority had insulted the Quran, the holy book of Muslims. Videos published on social media show protesters looting belongings from burning houses. In other footage, piles of belongings set on fire by the protesters can be seen. Kamal Bhatti, a Christian leader, confirmed that these are images from the scene of the incident. However, Reuters, which prepared this report, stated that it could not independently verify the authenticity of these images. Hundreds of police forces were mobilized to protect the Christian neighborhood in the outskirts of Faisalabad, Pakistan. Last year, a group of Pakistani Muslims also attacked a Christian area in eastern Pakistan, destroying several churches and burning dozens of houses under the pretext of 'insulting the Quran.' Insulting sacred beliefs or 'blasphemy' is a sensitive issue in Pakistan, where the majority of the population is Muslim, and a single accusation can lead to death by an angry mob. Although the death penalty is prescribed for insulting sacred beliefs in Pakistan, no one has been executed for this charge so far. However, individuals have often been killed extrajudicially by angry Muslims. Human rights groups say that Pakistan's strict laws regarding blasphemy are often used for personal vendettas. Christians make up only two percent of Pakistan's 230 million population and are considered one of the lowest classes in society, according to Agence France-Presse. The Independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has warned that the Christian community is 'at serious risk of death at the hands of angry mobs.'