Friday’s rioting: Pillaged church poses poignant questions

Protesters set St Paul’s Lutheran Church on fire, looted residential quarters.

PESHAWAR:

Amidst the stories of death and destruction on Friday, an incident in Mardan struck a particularly depressing note – and put forward some poignant questions for the citizens and authorities of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

A mob protesting against an anti-Islam movie launched a vicious attack on the worship place of another religion in Mardan city – not only setting the building on fire, but looting the community’s surrounding residential quarters. Thousands of protesters targeted the St Paul’s Lutheran Church during demonstrations that quickly turned into riots on Ishq-e-Rasool (PBUH) Day on Friday.

The incident has elicited a number of poignant questions from the Christian community in Pakistan – which was attacked despite expressing solidarity with their fellow countrymen, and even holding protests against the anti-Islam film.

While it wasn’t the first incident – the attack was definitely the most ferocious to date. Chairman of the Sarhadi Lutheran Church Peter Majid said the church has been targeted twice in 2010 during similar protests.

A furious mob managed to damage the church’s main gate then. This time, however, the damage was on a much larger scale.

Peter said the church and some of its residential quarters were set alight and destroyed. He said his house was looted and the protesters took away jewelry, cash, a laptop, TV and an LCD player. His car was also set on fire.

While usually two policemen are deputed at the church premises, 12 of them were deputed on Friday, Peter said.

Mardan, the hometown of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti, houses around 5,000 Christian families, who moved to the district in 1903 during the British era.

The families are mostly affiliated with municipal jobs in the district and a majority of them live in the Cantonment area.

Built in 1930, the church is situated on three kanals land, and includes a science laboratory and a primary school.

Chand Masih, the fourth bishop of the church, said four of their quarters near the church were looted and burnt down.

“Our hard-earned belongings have been reduced to ashes. I was also attacked by the protesters but was rescued by the police,” he said.

Chand added that all the families are safe but fled their homes in fear. “We have been living here since decades and all the Muslims here know that we were peaceful people,” he said.

The bishop went on to say that the Christian community condemned the profane film and has also held protests against it.

“No member of the community has disputes with anyone here. The people should have held peaceful protests and showed restraint,” he said.

Ilyas Masih, the former chairman of the church, said that all records and furniture were burnt down, while the police escaped from the church. These acts show that the government has failed to protect us and our prayer places, he added.

He further said that Azam Khan Hoti, Ali Khan and other politicians only came to express their condolence and left without any announcement.

The bishop said that the government was aware who was behind the arson and should, in this regard, take the perpetrators to task immediately.

“We should be compensated otherwise we will launch a protest against across the province,” he warned.

Amir Yaqoob, Bishop of Nowsehra church, also condemned the incident in strongest terms.  He reiterated that the community stood alongside Muslims in their hour of distress. “[But] why have the Muslims attacked our religious places?”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2012.