Some violent miscreants, in the town of Jaranwala, situated in district Faisalabad in Punjab, ablaze several churches by sieging the locality where mostly Christians were living on the information of blasphemy of Holy Quran the day before yesterday.
It was the appalling incident after which the district administration imposed a curfew due to the volatile circumstances following a case of blasphemy against the Christian community. A general holiday was declared throughout the district yesterday(Thursday).
The angry mob had surrounded a Christian neighborhood, causing destruction and setting at least four churches on fire. After the incident heavy contingent of police and rangers were deployed and cases of blasphemy were registered against two Christian youths along with almost 100 offenders
On the other hand, the caretaker Prime Minister vowed to bring the criminals to justice, while the Punjab government has ordered a high-level inquiry into the incident. The police have also arrested the real culprit, who provoked the Muslim community by using the loudspeaker of the mosque by watching viral videos of the incident . Investigations are underway, and orders for the arrest of more culprits have been issued.
The spokesperson of the Punjab government in his tweet termed the awful occurrence an attempt has been made to disrupt Pakistan’s internal peace under a thought-out conspiracy.
The Punjab government spokesperson confirmed the arrest of more than 100 individuals involved in these incidents and also mentioned that the investigation is being conducted on the scientific grounds with the suspects.
During the chaos, several affected families had left their homes and moved to some other safe places. However, the majority of the Muslims in the area did not support the miscreants but also offered refuge to their Christians brethren at their homes. A significant number of people on social media are condemning this unlawfulness.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel expressed deep concern over the acts of violence targeting churches and homes of the Christian community in reaction to the blatant blasphemy of the Holy Quran.
If we follow the teachings of Islam thoroughly, it forbade strictly the destruction of worship places belonging to any religion. The last Holy Prophet (SAW), always used to instruct his army for not damaging them even during war.
It is the duty of the Islamic scholars to teach the people tolerance as Islam is the religion of peace. But with the wrongdoings of some troublemaker elements, not only the face of Islam is tarnished but also the name of the country is maligned everywhere in the world.
There are some apprehensions that some foreign anti- Pakistan hands might be involved behind the tragedy, but when the law enforcing agencies through interrogation, would unearth other facts, the more knots of ambiguity would be opened in the case.
The law of blasphemy is being misused by the handful fundamentalists and hawks. The government should take concrete measures to prevent its exploitation to avoid these kinds of shocking happenings in future.
The main question arises that why our society has become so fierce and short-tempered while our religion Islam imparted the training of broad-mindedness and tolerance. As the Muslim we must remain calm especially in religious matters. By taking the law in hand, we should refer any case of sacrilege to the police as a responsible citizen.