Jaranwala incident: Attacks on churches, Christian houses were part of hate campaign: HRCP mission

LAHORE: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) fact-finding mission has found out that the attacks on churches and houses of the minority community on August 16 were part of a larger campaign of hatred against the local Christians.

The mission report, shared with the media on Friday, said in its findings that it “cannot rule out the suspicion that this was not a spontaneous or random crowd [that carried out attacks], but part of a larger campaign of hatred against the local Christians”.

The HRCP mission report said that at least 24 churches, dozens of chapels and scores of houses were torched and looted in Jaranwala in a series of mob attacks against the local Christian community on August 16, 2023.

Following rumours and allegations of blasphemy against a Christian man and subsequent calls for action by Muslims from mosque loudspeakers, thousands of men gathered in the town and proceeded to attack Christian churches and homes.

The mission consisted of HRCP Chairperson Hina Jilani, Centre for Social Justice Executive Director Peter Jacob, Women Action Forum senior member Neelam Hussain, and historian and rights activist Dr Yaqoob Bangash. It said that while it fully recognised the operational difficulties that the police might have confronted in a small town with meagre administrative and law-enforcement resources to deal with a situation of widespread violence, there were concerns with respect to the timeliness of the response as well as weaknesses in the strategy, employed to restrain the crowd.

The mission recommended reviewing the blasphemy laws, so that they were not misused against individuals or any religious minority. Additionally, policies and strategies to deal with organised extremist groups should be devised, especially with regard to enforcement of law and order, so that such groups are neither able nor allowed to 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, so that there was no impunity for organised Muslim religious groups that openly declare their intentions of violent action against religious minorities.

The government must also take stern action against any instances of hate speech against any community. The government needs to take urgent measures to compensate the victim community and rebuild the Christian neighbourhoods, damaged in Jaranwala, recommended the mission. The compensation money must be commensurate with the damage and be disbursed swiftly, it added.

The administration must publicly clarify that the transfer of the assistant commissioner, a Christian, was not due to any fault on his part but was done to protect him and his family.

The mission said that 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, and the financial and human resources needed to do this be made available without any delay.