World | Pakistan
Christians in Lahore protest against brutal killing of eight people by mob
Hundreds of Pakistani Christians staged a protest on Wednesday over the killing of eight of their community members by a Muslim mob, with some demonstrators smashing the windows of public buses.
- AP
- Published: 20:58 August 5, 2009
- Image Credit: AP
- Pakistani Christians chant slogans in Lahore where they staged a mass protest. Television footage showed dozens of protesters climbing onto vehicles and breaking their windows.
Lahore: Hundreds of Pakistani Christians staged a protest on Wednesday over the killing of eight of their community members by a Muslim mob, with some demonstrators smashing the windows of public buses.
Television footage showed dozens of protesters in Lahore climbing onto the vehicles and breaking their windows.
Ijaz Sindhu, chairman of the organising group, the Pakistan Christian Labour Party, said some young people attacked four buses but caused no injuries to fleeing passengers.
Police officer Rana Ayaz Salim said about 1,000 people took part in the demonstration.
Hundreds of Muslims attacked a Christian neighbourhood in Gojra city on Saturday after reports that a Quran had been desecrated. A total of eight Christians were killed.
Authorities say an initial probe debunked the claims that the Muslim holy book was defiled, and government officials have said members of the banned Sunni group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and its Al Qaida-linked offshoot Lashkar-e-Jhangvi were arrested as suspects in the attacks.
The independent Human Rights Commission said its fact-finding team has determined that the rioting had been planned and was not spontaneous. It said hard-line clerics made incendiary speeches.
The assault, in which dozens of homes were also burned, underscored the precarious status of religious minorities in the Muslim-majority nation where extremist Islam is on the rise.
Punjab Minister for Minority Affairs Kamran Michael said yesterday that a judge had been appointed to conduct a judicial inquiry into the Gojra riots, and that the judge had visited the site.
Newspapers have been filled with letters from readers condemning the Gojra attacks.
Christians - including both Protestants and Catholics - make up less than 5 per cent of Pakistan's 175 million people, according to the CIA World Factbook. They generally live in peace with their Muslim neighbours, but are vulnerable to blasphemy laws that carry heavy penalties for insulting Islam, the Quran or the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
News Editor's choice
-
Ukraine leaders fight over Russian language
Violence erupts in Ukraine parliament over a bill to allow use of Russian language in courts, hospitals
-
CBSE: 100% success in many UAE schools
6,000 students from 53 schools meet grade expectations in examinations
-
'I can’t believe he is not going to come back'
Seventeen-year-old boy went missing in Dubai during a visit from Pakistan
