Youhanabad church attacks and lynching


We all saw this week the tragic bombing of two churches in Lahore on Sunday. The death of 16 people triggered riots in the area when the youth of the victimised Christian community came out in protest on the road, breaking the Metro bus fence and trashing the ticket office.

However, the incident that grieved me the most, was the lynching of two innocent passersby and burning of their bodies. It’s a shame that our inaction and blind eye towards the injustices against minorities in Pakistan, has brought the relatively peaceful Christian community to this point.

It’s not a hidden fact that the Christian community in Pakistan is persecuted unjustly. Their people have been time and again burnt out of their homes, killed and lynched, mostly under cover of a false blasphemy charge brought by vested interests of one sort or another. Those who raise concerns on exploitation of country’s blasphemy law for vested interests, are quietened, mostly by terrorists groups. 

But the fact of the matter is that there have been more terrorists’ attacks on mosques than churches in Pakistan, and as far as such attacks are concerned, Pakistani Muslims are equally threatened as Pakistanis Christians are. It seems that TTP and its affiliates are now focusing more on targeting praying places, as an effective terror strategy in terms of its psychological impact. 

The rise of such vigilantes’ justice incidents doesn’t only demonstrate the increasing religious intolerance among masses, it also reflects the dangerously increasing frustration against the justice system in Pakistan, making people to take law in their own hands. It demonstrates the sickness of attitudes that justifies mob justice and such inhuman behaviour.

Bushra
2305 hours
Friday 20 March 2015

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