Daily Times

Haroon-ur-Rashid, Vice-Chairman and Mr. Hassan Raza Pasha, Chairman, Executive Committee of the Pakistan Bar Council have strongly condemned the incident of ransacked and torched of four churches and a number of residences of members of the Christian community as well as the office of the local Assistant Commissioner by a violent mob of hundreds followed by an alleged incident of blasphemy in Jaranwala. They have expressed their great grief and sorrow on this heinous and terrible incident and said that attacks on minorities have drastically increased day by day and expressed that such like people have nothing to do with Islam, where crowd are provoked on religious sentiments to settle personal scores and dispense mob justice.

They expressed their deep concerns upon this incident and said that it is utter failure of the Government and law enforcement agencies to protect non-Muslim citizens/minorities of Pakistan. They demanded that all possible steps/measures should be taken for safety and security of the minorities and foolproof security to all the religious places should be ensured, throughout the Country, so that such incidents may not happen in future. They said minorities have equal rights and are equal citizen of Pakistan.

They further expressed that this incident has frightened the Christian community across the country and Government should provide protection to those persons/families who have shifted the area after this incident and bring them back to their homes. They urged the Government to compensate all the victims for loss of their properties and also reconstruct all the churches which have been damaged because of this incident. They have also demanded from the care taker Provincial as well as Federal Governments and all the relevant stakeholders to immediately identify unknown assailants and the persons involved in this incident and they must be awarded exemplary punishment as per law.