Pakistan Church set on fire over blasphemy accusation

ASSIST News Service (ANS)
www.assistnews.net
September 12, 2009

Pakistan Church set on fire over blasphemy accusation

SIALKOT, PAKISTAN (ANS) -- Angry Muslim residents of a village in the Punjab province of Pakistan set to fire a Church building on Friday, September 11, 2009, after a Christian boy was accused of desecrating the Muslim holy book, the Quran.
The Church of Pakistan building in Jataykay village near Sambrial, received partial damage as a result of the fire.
ANS has discovered that the problem arose after Robert, the Christian boy accused of blasphemy, allegedly had a love affair with a Muslim girl in the village.
Blasphemy accusations were allegedly slapped on Robert after his fling with the Muslim girl became known. Some fifty Christian families live in the Jataykay village.
Police have arrested the Christian boy but have stopped short from registering blasphemy case against him at the time of writing this report.
Heavy contingents of police arrived in the village on Friday to avert any possible further trouble.
Pir Sabir Shah, a local hardliner Muslim, who aggravated the situation by fomenting religious hatred, has been arrested.
Pakistani Muslim clerics have a reputation of making capital of blasphemy-related issues.
Dr. Nelson Azeem, a Christian member of National Assembly, chaired a National Assembly Standing Committee on Minorities Affair's meeting on Saturday, September 12, to discuss the situation.
ANS has learnt that the Deputy Inspector General of Police, the District Police Officer and the District Coordination Officer, would be dispatched notices from the National Assembly Secretariat Islamabad on Monday with instructions to probe the recent attack on the church.
"A certain militant group seems to be behind the latest attack on a church. The same group appears to be involved in the recent incidents of violence against Christians in Bhamniwala, Korian and Gojra," the Chairman of Pakistan Minorities Teachers Association (PMTA), Professor Anjum James Paul, quoted Dr. Nelson Azeem as saying.
Condemning the attack on the Church, Mr. Anjum called upon Pakistan government to take strict action against the culprits.
He expressed serious concerns on widespread misuse of blasphemy laws, saying that miscreants and extremists are vitiating inter-religious relations between Christians and Muslims.
He termed attacks on Christians and their places of worship as a "disappointment of miscreant and extremist elements."