Yet another shameful incident has shocked the Pakistani nation.
LONDON: Yet another shameful incident has shocked the Pakistani nation. An enraged crowd attacked the Christian neighbourhood of Joseph Colony in Lahore and set fire to over 100 households. Similar to the previous events of this kind, a sanitation worker was accused of blasphemy and the infuriated mob decided to punish the whole community.
According to some media reports, this incident was a result of a personal rift between two friends and the poor sanitary worker may have been wrongly accused of blasphemy. This is another instance of religious and politico-religious organisations failing to condemn an incident of this nature.
This latest event reminds one of the attack on a Christian locality in Gojra in 2009 when workers of a banned outfit went door to door setting fire to Christian homes and churches. The killers of Salmaan Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti have still not been prosecuted and the government is shying away from taking measures to stop religious hatred, fearing losing its vote bank in the upcoming elections.
Christians form a very small minority in a country that has a Muslim majority of about 98 per cent. Although the majority is supposed to look after and protect the minorities as per Islamic laws, a large proportion of the Christian community is forced to work as low-paid cleaners and lives in miserable conditions. The recent attacks in the name of religion will only increase the miseries of this already devastated community.
Irfan Hussain
Published in The Express Tribune, March 13th, 2013.
