PAKISTAN (ACN News): Government authorities in Pakistan stand accused of failing to protect a vulnerable community who fled their Christian quarter and watched helplessly as their homes were robbed and set ablaze.
Bishop Sebastian Shaw of Lahore blamed the provincial government of the Punjab for failing to act when a dispute between two men spiralled into attack in which a 3000-strong mob attacked the city’s Joseph Colony, a Christian quarter where 180 homes and two churches were burnt. Nobody was killed.
Speaking on March 11 from the scene of the devastation, Bishop Shaw, apostolic administrator of Lahore archdiocese, said the attack on March 9 was “well organised” and could have been averted by adequate police protection.
Bishop Shaw said: “The Government are to blame; they are responsible. They knew two days before about the threat of this attack happening.”
Stating that the mob “used chemicals which only the Army and other agencies have”, Bishop Shaw said: “People are very, very angry and sad.
“They are sad because they have lived together with the rest of the community for a long, long time. Now they are asking: ‘Why is this happening to us?'”
He said: “The situation is very, very pathetic. It is difficult to even look at the people when you see them in a state such as this.”
Bishop Shaw went on to urge the international community to renew calls to amend Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws.
He was speaking after it emerged that the violence in Joseph Colony had been sparked by a dispute in which Muslim man Shafiq Ahmed accused sanitary worker Sawan Masih, a Christian man in his 20s, of making defamatory comments against the Prophet Mohammed, a crime punishable by death according to 295C of Pakistan’s Penal Code.
Despite initial investigations disproving the allegations, a growing mob of extremists began pelting the homes of more than 150 Christian families and dispersing chemicals.
As the tension mounted, police arrested Mr Masih and charged him with blasphemy.
