ISLAMABAD  -  Pakistan Bar Council has strongly condemned the incident of ransack­ing and torching of four churches and a number of residences of members of the Christian commu­nity by a violent mob in Jaranwala.

In a statement issued by the sec­retary of the Pakistan Bar Council, Chairman Executive Committee Has­san Raza Pasha and Vice-Chairman Haroonur Rashid strongly con­demned the tragic incident. The of­fice of a local assistant commissioner was also ransacked and torched by a violent mob followed by an al­leged incident of blasphemy. They expressed their profound grief and sorrow on this heinous and terrible incident and said that attacks on minorities had drastically increased day by day and expressed that such people had nothing to do with Islam, where crowd are provoked on reli­gious sentiments to settle personal scores and dispense mob justice. They expressed their deep concerns upon this incident and said that it was utter failure of the government and law enforcement agencies to protect non-Muslim citizens/minorities of Pakistan. They demanded that all pos­sible steps/measures should be taken for safety and security of the minori­ties and foolproof security to all the religious places should be ensured throughout the country, so that such incidents may not happen in future. They said people belonging to minor­ity communities had equal rights and they were equal citizen of Pakistan. 

They further expressed that this incident had frightened the Christian community across the country and government should provide protec­tion to those persons/families who had shifted from the area after this incident and bring them back to their homes. They urged the government to compensate all the victims for loss of their properties and also reconstruct all the churches which had been dam­aged because of this incident. They also demanded from the caretaker provincial as well as federal govern­ments and all the relevant stakehold­ers to immediately identify unknown assailants and the persons involved in this incident and they must be award­ed exemplary punishment as per law.