Mob violence: 106 acquitted in Joseph Colony case

An enraged mob ransacked and burnt the entire locality a day after all Christian families left the area

LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Saturday acquitted 106 people accused of being involved in a March 2013 incident in which dozens of houses of Christians were set on fire in Lahore’s Joseph Colony neighbourhood.

The ATC acquitted the accused after the prosecution witnesses said they did not recognise them and claimed the suspects were not the ones behind the blaze. They also said they had no objection if the accused were acquitted in the case.



There were more than 80 prosecution witnesses – 63 of them had their statements recorded. However all of them said they did not recognise the accused. All the 106 accused – who are on bail from day one – appeared before the court on Saturday.

On March 9, 2013, thousands of protesters – armed with sticks, clubs and stones – besieged the Joseph Colony and torched around 150 houses located in the Christian-dominated neighbourhood following allegations of blasphemy against a Christian man.



Three churches, several shops and a number of vehicles had also been torched by the mob. Police officials later arrested both the rioters and the blasphemy suspect, who was booked under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC)

Witnesses and police said the enraged mob ransacked and burnt the entire locality a day after all Christian families left the area as the police had apparently alerted them about possibility of an attack. The affected people, however, also accused police of doing nothing to pre-empt the plunder.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2017.