HRCP says Muslim leaders complicit in Jaranwala attacks

A fact-finding mission to Jaranwala found local Muslim religious leaders complicit in attacks on churches and houses of the Christian community earlier this month, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said on Friday.

The HRCP said in a statement that at least 24 churches and several dozen smaller chapels as well as scores of houses in Jaranwala were torched and looted in a series of mob attacks on Aug 16.

The HRCP sent a fact-finding mission to Jaranwala following the attacks against the local Christian community after allegations of blasphemy against a Christian man and subsequent calls for action by the Muslims from mosque loudspeakers.

Thousands of men gathered in the town and proceeded to attack Christian churches and homes. Several churches were vandalised and torched in the melee in the town of Jaranwala in Faisalabad district.

The HRCP mission comprised its Chairperson, Hina Jilani; Centre for Social Justice Executive Director Peter Jacob, Women’s Action Forum Member Neelam Hussain and historian and rights activist Dr Yaqoob Bangash.

According to the HRCP statement, the mission did not rule out the suspicion that it was not a spontaneous or random crowd that led the attacks, but part of a larger campaign of hatred against the local Christians.

Read ‘CTD arrests both main accused in Jaranwala rampage’

The mission recognised the operational difficulties facing the police in a small town with meagre administrative and law-enforcement resources to deal with a situation of widespread violence.

However, the statement added that there were concerns with respect to the timeline of the response, as well as weaknesses in the strategy employed to restrain the crowd.

The HRCP statement stressed the need for devising policies and strategies to deal with organised extremist groups, especially with regard to enforcement of law and order, so that such groups could not undermine the writ of the state.

The mission urged the Punjab government to take measures to implement the recommendations of the judicial inquiry held after the communal riots in Gojra in 2009, calling for stern action against any instances of hate speech.

“The government needs to take urgent measures to compensate the victim community and rebuild the Christian neighbourhoods damaged in Jaranwala,” the mission recommended.

“The directive of the 2014 Supreme Court judgment calling for a separate police force to be created to protect religious minorities’ places of worship must be implemented urgently,” it added.