Life at Joseph Colony appears normal. Children are playing in unpaved narrow streets -- sewage water flowing into them. Vendors are making some money by selling cheap fruits and eatables to the children. Surrounded by godowns of steel, the colony is peaceful with free elders sitting outside their houses or roaming in the streets as usual.

Posters and messages of Christmas greetings from two months ago are still visible on the walls. A work of art on the second main entrance of the colony shows pictures of founder of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and national poet of the county Allama Iqbal under Pakistani flag saying, "We are proud of being Pakistani" and "Long live Pakistan."

Some streets of the colony displaying big flex posters with pictures of dozens of young men of the community who go to Sheikhupura, a nearby district, on foot to attend the annual religious congregation at Mariamabad.

On March 9, last year, a highly charged mob of a few thousand Muslims set ablaze around 200 houses, shops and two churches of this more than 50 years old locality situated in the north of Lahore over the allegation of blasphemy by Sawan Masih, a young Christian boy. The violent mob, locals say, asked the Christian community to hand over the accused to them or get ready for the consequences. The mob burned their houses after looting all valuables from almost every house, they say.

Police say accused Sawan Masih and complainant Shahid Imran were friends for the last 10 years and the complainant used to run his stall in front of the colony. The residents claim that local influential traders wanted to vacate this colony and turn it into godowns to expand their businesses. 

Both cases of blasphemy and violence are pending before the courts for the past one year.

"Government has given quite reasonable financial compensation to us. But we have to spend most of this money on further rebuilding our houses as the government left the work half-done," says Saleem Masih, a sanitary worker and senior resident of the colony. "Many houses are still without gas supply. Sewerage system of the colony is in need of repair. The promise of giving official certificate of possession of the land to the families is yet to be fulfilled. And there is no peace of mind. Accused Sawan Masih is in jail while many attackers on the colony have been granted bail. Many of them move around the colony mocking at our helplessness."

"The Muslims are afraid of us and we are afraid of them," says Ilyas Masih, another old resident of the colony. "They are afraid because they have also to face the court now. This will continue in Pakistan until the state stops misuse of blasphemy laws."

A day before the attack on the colony, tension had built up. Posters and banners proclaiming death as the only punishment to the blasphemer of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) were everywhere around the colony, followed by the visit of senior police cops urging the Christian community to leave the place at the earliest to save themselves. The pressure forced them to leave abruptly. There was no time to take their valuables along.

"We had memories attached with our old things. They were given by our parents, relatives and friends," says Tahira Bibi, standing in the wooden door of her small two-room house.

Next day, an organised mob of religious extremists looted and burned the whole colony, recalls Suhail Masih, a rickshaw driver and a social activist of the community. "It scares us to think what might have happened if we were here and sleeping at night."

Accused Sawan Masih, in his recorded statement before the court in the last hearing held a few days ago, has termed the blasphemy charges "absolutely incorrect." He has said his belief did not allow committing blasphemy against any prophet and no such incident took place. The statement further reads that the surrounding steel market godown owners had been persuading and forcing colony residents for the past few years to sell this land against substantial amount. "They hatched a conspiracy to push out the residents of the colony. They contrived a case and got it filed by a person who was close to me. I am innocent. This case is false and concocted and has ulterior motives," the statement reads.

Seventy years old Chaman Masih, father of the accused, terms the whole case baseless. "The case is a lie. The complainant came here ten years ago and was a good friend of the accused. He made no such issue ever before; he was a child when he came here." Chaman, a father of eight, calls for justice for his son.

Joseph Colony residents are planning to assemble outside the colony on March 9 to thank God for saving their lives last year. "Can anybody tell us if there is any Christian who has been found involved in terrorism till date? We are not into these things. We want to live in peace," says Suhail Masih. "We only want equal right to live, justice and peace."

The article appeared in The News on Sunday on March 2, 2014 with the title One year on