PAKISTAN – Evidence emerging from Pakistan’s Jaranwala district is pointing towards a comprehensive attempt to force the ejection of each and every Christian from the area and erase all signs of their presence.
Thousands of Christians fled as a huge mob of extremists descended on the district near Faisalabad in the Punjab Province. The apparent pretext for the rampage was an accusation of blasphemy against Christians in Jaranwala.
Video footage, photographs, first-hand reports of the violence and witness statements from those visiting the scenes of Wednesday’s attacks strongly point towards a pre-planned and concerted attempt to eliminate the Christian presence both from the town of Jaranwala and the villages in the surrounding district.
The desecration of Christian graves, the burning of baptismal certificates and other religious documentation, sacrilegious attacks on tabernacles, statues and other sacred symbols can now be established as facts.
Archbishop Joseph Arshad, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan, has stated publicly that 21 places of worship were attacked, a number of them torched.
Hundreds of homes belonging to Christian homes are now in ruins. Many are completely stripped of their contents, down to the last lightbulb.
Footage has shown pews being thrown out of church windows, beds burning in the streets and motorbikes and other forms of transport set ablaze.
Those who have finally been able to get into the areas worst affected have described an evidently co-ordinated and meticulously planned strike singling out Christian homes not only in urban areas but also in villages and hamlets. Such attacks demonstrated a detailed knowledge of the religious demography of the area.
Images of blackened, soot-ridden buildings and reports of an acrid smell by those visiting the area in the aftermath of the atrocity suggest the use of chemicals which burn at a very high temperature, causing maximum damage.
People on the scene have raised questions about the response of the police as the attacks got underway. Some have even gone so far as to suggest some level of complicity among the authorities or at least a willingness to turn a blind eye.
Other evidence suggests that were it not for a hasty mass evacuation of thousands of Christians starting at dawn on Wednesday triggered by a tip-off from a well-placed source, the violence could have resulted in a significant loss of life.
As it was, although there was substantial damage to property, there have as yet been no reports of injuries or deaths.
The significance of what has happened has not been lost on church leaders. Archbishop Benny Travas of Karachi put out a public statement, saying: “We as a Christian community have time and again displayed our fidelity to the nation of Pakistan and yet incidents like [what is happening in] Jaranwala show that we are in reality second-class citizens to be terrorised and frightened at will.”
Meantime, anxiety is growing about the fate of thousands of Christians from Jaranwala and the surrounding area who were forced in the days that followed the atrocity to spend the night sleeping rough, with up to 1,000 trying to take their rest in fields of sugar cane.
In the days that have followed, Pakistan news sources have reported that 3,000 police including elite forces have been deployed to the area with hundreds of arrests made.
Punjab caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi has promised to restore affected churches and homes and an inquiry into the incident has been requested, with its terms set by acting Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq.
But will it be enough to restore confidence? It seems unlikely. Archbishop Travas said it all when he stated: “Once again, we have the same old condemnations and visits by the politicians and other government officials expressing their solidarity with the Christian community and that ‘justice will be done’ but in reality nothing materialises and all is forgotten.”
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