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wo years have passed since violent mobs descended upon Jaranwala, setting fire to churches and Christian homes, following a blasphemy accusation. The flames have long been extinguished, but the scars, both physical and psychological, remain fresh in the minds of the survivors, some of whom continue to wait for justice.
While survivors are struggling to rebuild their lives, most of the accused have been granted bail and are roaming free.
Lost livelihood
Zohaib Daniyal, a resident of Chak 61 GB, has been unemployed for two years.
Before August 16, 2023, he ran a small internet service business. His office was set on fire by a stick-wielding crowd during the riots. Using a crane, the rioters also destroyed a church adjacent to his shop.
Zohaib tells The News on Sunday that he has been making rounds of police station and courts to seek justice.
“We kept visiting the Saddar police station for days just to get an FIR registered. About a week later, we were told to wait in the church for the police to come to us. We waited until 3 or 4am, but no one arrived,” he says. “The next day, we learnt that an FIR had been registered, naming someone else as the complainant.”
Zohaib says the man who used the crane to demolish the church was his former classmate. “I identified him and the police finally arrested him, I was pressured to withdraw my complaint. I was threatened and harassed and with false cases, but I refused to compromise,” he says.
Zohaib says his life has been upended. He says he has received no support in rebuilding it. “No government representative has contacted me to offer compensation since my shop was set ablaze.”
He says the stigma has also persisted and is still affecting him and other members of the Christian community. “I have gone looking for a job at various factories. No one has hired me,” he says.
“For two years, I’ve been financially dependent on my elderly father who works at an ice factory. He has been covering my expenses as well as those of my wife and children.”
Zohaib says many other complainants in the Jaranwala cases have been silenced through payouts or intimidation. “Most of the suspects have been granted bail. Some have been cleared in police investigation,” he says.
“I was offered money; even a rebuilt office, but I am still pursuing my case. I want the criminals punished under the law so that no one dares to commit such a heinous act again,” he says.
While Zohaib remains determined to see the culprits brought to justice, there has been no conviction so far.
Suspects
Information obtained from Faisalabad police, under the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act, 2013, revealed that 23 criminal cases were registered in connection with the Jaranwala riots. These cases named 142 identified suspects and 5,255 unknown individuals.
Police arrested 138 identified suspects and 255 not identified in the FIRs. Out of the 255, 79 suspects were discharged following an identification parade. 314 suspects were held judicial custody. 309 of the suspects are currently on pre-arrest bail. Only one is in jail.
Three of the identified suspects and around 5,000 unidentified suspects were never arrested. The three have been declared proclaimed offenders.
Seventeen of the cases are under trial; three have been closed. In two cases, suspects have been acquitted due to witness retractions. They are seven of the suspects in FIR No 467, lodged at Lundianwala police station and two suspects in the FIR No 1295 filed in Saddar police station.
So far, only one case has been concluded. It involved FIR No 1258 of City police station, in which one accused, Pervez Kodu, was sentenced to death for blasphemy.
Four other accused - Umar Saleem, Umair Saleem, Shahid Aftab and Dawood William - were acquitted on April 18. Robert Carlos alias Rocky Raja and Patras Aamir Masih were discharged on September 12, 2023.
Compensation
Some of the recipients remain dissatisfied with the compensation. Naveed Mukhtar, administrator of Peace Mission International Church in Chak 120 GB, says his church, destroyed during the riots, was poorly repaired.
“After the repairs, recent rains caused the roof to collapse. Cracks have appeared in the structure. The sound system has been damaged,” he says.
Mukhtar also alleges that those who destroyed the church roam free in the village. He says he has been threatened and told to stop pursuing legal action.
Deputy Commissioner Nadeem Nasir claims that all victims of the mob violence have received compensation.
Zohaib says the man who used the crane to demolish the church was his former classmate.
“A total of 84 buildings were damaged in the riots, including 22 churches and three pastors’ residences. Each affected party was compensated with Rs 2 million. Repairs to all 22 churches have been completed,” he says.
According to official record, 80 victims received compensation cheques on August 19, 2023. Another four received compensation on February 13, 2024.
Half rebuilt
Mumtaz Bibi, a resident of Christian Colony, Jaranwala, is among the people who received a compensation cheque for Rs 2 million. She says the amount was not enough to fully rebuild her home.
“My husband retired three years ago. We built this house from his pension,” she says. “He has since passed away and I am repairing it again, rupee by rupee. But I live in constant fear that those devils might return and leave more destruction in their wake.”
Her house stands directly opposite St John’s Church. The two men were accused of blasphemy had lived in the alley behind the church.
Mumtaz says that on the day the police had themselves told people in her street to leave their homes because the mob was too numerous for them to control.
“Had the police had taken protective measures before the mob gathered, perhaps our homes and belongings could have been saved. That did not happen,” she says.
Police denial
When TNS contacted City Police Officer Sahibzada Bilal Umar regarding the police’s failure to stop the mob from arson and vandalism, the challenges in bringing legal proceedings against the accused to completion and the steps taken to cancel pre-arrest bails of named suspects, he responded:
“Police have arrested most of culprits. They are undergoing trial. You should acknowledge the fact that police have been vigilant and maintained peace and tranquility, by the grace of Allah, in spite of myriad challenges.”
Special Branch report
Concerns voiced by the victims of the Jaranwala riots about police conduct are echoed in a confidential Special Branch report detailing the events of August 16, 2023.
According to the report, the violence was joined by approximately 1,500 members of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan, 500 members of Sunni Tehreek and another 500 citizens with no known affiliations.
The report states that police were informed about the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran at 5:00am. No action was taken until 8:00am. The slow and ineffective response, the report notes, enabled the mob to swell and grow more agitated.
The Special Branch also recommended the use of tear gas to disperse the protesters. However, the shelling was delayed until 6:45pm. By that time, significant damage had already been done. Nevertheless, once tear gas was used, the violence subsided quickly, and the protesters agreed to negotiate with police.
Following negotiations, TLP’s regional ameer Akmal Hassan Shah, flanked by than CPO Usman Akram Gondal, held a press conference at Cinema Chowk. He told his followers:
“We have reached an understanding with the administration. SHO Mansoor Sadiq has been suspended from service; Assistant Commissioner Shaukat Sandhu has been removed from his post; and an FIR has been lodged against those who desecrated the Holy Quran.”
The grim reality is that, two years on, not a single perpetrator has been convicted.
After this announcement, about 1,300 TLP men from surrounding villages left for Jaranwala on tractor trolleys. Another 2,000-2,500 protesters continued the demonstrations in various streets.
The report identifies several key ‘instigators.’ They include Muhammad Yasin, a resident of City area, who allegedly used the Bahar-i-Madina Mosque loudspeaker in Chak 102 RB to incite Muslims to demolish churches belonging to the Christian community.
Shabbir Ahmed Qadri, a senior TLP worker from the same village, reportedly brought 50 to 60 men by bus to join the protest. Before leaving, he made an announcement in the mosque, urging “all other devout Muslims” to head to City area to participate in the protest.
The report accuses Liaquat Ali Gujar, a TLP candidate for the PP-114 provincial seat, of leading workers to Isa Nagri, where they allegedly set fire to 14/ 15 Christian homes and three churches.
The Special Branch also compiled a damage assessment for 80 Christian homes. However, the methodology has been contested. Three homes listed at serial numbers 11, 12 and 13 had identical inventories — “fan, iron, red pump, two bed sets, clothes, four coats, TV, fridge, washing machine and other household items” — however, the estimated losses were Rs 556,000, Rs 3,140,000 and Rs 706,000, respectively.
The long road to
justice
Samuel Pyara, chairman of the Implementation of Minority Rights Forum, has been pursuing a legal battle since 2023 to secure justice for the victims of the Jaranwala tragedy.
He says that the government had submitted to the Supreme Court that each affected family would receive Rs 2 million in compensation through its head of household. He says 26 churches and 148 homes were damaged/ destroyed but the district administration restored only 19 churches and paid compensation to the owners of 80 houses.
“Where three or four families lived in the same house, only one was compensated. The other received nothing. Amir and Rocky Raja were falsely accused of blasphemy. They were later acquitted, but their three houses, which were burned, were excluded from compensation,” he tells TNS.
Pyara says that the Supreme Court has directed police that property seized as case evidence should not be destroyed until all accused in the cases, including those absconding, have been arrested.
“As a result, no case has been concluded. The number of arrested suspects is less than 400. Most of them are on bail. We demand that those we have nominated must be arrested,” he says.
He laments that a man who used a mosque loudspeaker to incite attacks on churches was granted bail by the court on the grounds that “he did not explicitly tell people to set fires.”
Similarly, he says, Irfan Younas who used a crane to demolish churches was granted bail by the High Court. Pyara says his team later presented fresh evidence, resulting in the cancellation of that bail — and the suspect is now in jail.
“Bails granted to the identified suspects should be cancelled. There is also a need to examine how suspects booked under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act were granted pre-arrest bail in the first place,” he says.
Pyara accuses the government of failing to comply with the Supreme Court’s orders. He says, “Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa had directed that those engaging in hate speech must be arrested — but that order too has not been implemented.”
The writer has been associated withjournalism for the past decade. He tweets naeemahmad876