THE incidents of violence that took place in Jaranwala tehsil of Faisalabad over blasphemy allegations cannot be condoned and, therefore, an all-encompassing strategy is needed to stem the tendency of mob justice. After Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar spoke firmly against the deplorable violence, the Punjab Government moved to deploy Rangers in the area to maintain peace and safeguard lives and properties of the people and according to reports over one hundred arrests have been made. The trouble started after torn pages of the Holy Quran were discovered near the Christian colony with alleged blasphemous contents written on them.
Pakistan has a strong law against blasphemy and, therefore, there was absolutely no justification for creating law and order situation and threatening lives, properties and religious places in retaliation to any alleged incident of blasphemy. Videos on social media showed hundreds of people armed with batons and sticks attacking two local churches, setting them ablaze, while another mob attacked private homes, torching them and breaking windows. There were also complaints by members of the Christian community that valuables were taken away from houses abandoned by their inmates for fear of their lives. It has widely been reported that sentiments of the people were exploited by some elements to such an extent that the mob did not believe in assurances given by senior police officials to take action against the blasphemy accused but the mob remained adamant that they would hang the accused themselves. It has also been alleged that the police watched the situation as silent spectators as hundreds of people, armed with sticks and batons, vandalized the churches besides ransacking and burning of homes in residential areas. There are reasons to believe that the law-enforcing agencies did not take prompt action to protect lives and properties of minorities despite knowing the fact that the issue of blasphemy is very sensitive. Extra care was needed in view of the injured feelings of the people due to repeated incidents of burning and desecration of the Holy Quran in Sweden. Assistant Commissioner of Jaranwala has been removed from his post and an investigation has been ordered into the unfortunate tragedy but this is not enough. There should be zero tolerance for those who incite people on violence or those who perpetrate crimes against others, especially the religious minorities as such behaviour badly hurts national unity and cohesion. The ugly incidents in Jaranwala could have been prevented if no leniency was shown against those involved in such incidents in the past. A firm action is needed as repeated incidents of mob justice send negative message to the outside world.
