ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court yesterday ordered police and provincial officials to explain why they failed to prevent a riot in a Christian area of Lahore in which more than 100 homes were torched.
A mob of more than 3,000 Muslims rampaged through the Joseph Colony area of Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, on Saturday, looting property and burning buildings after a Christian was accused of blasphemy.
Three days went by between the blasphemy claims, which often provoke a violent public response in Pakistan, and the carnage in the colony.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said the violence could have been avoided.
“We would like to have a clear stance of (Punjab) provincial government on failure to provide protection to people,” Chaudhry said during a hearing.
He rejected a report submitted by the provincial government, saying: “Nothing has been produced to establish causes of the incident in Joseph Colony... We need a specific reply.
“Similarly, no specific reply has been submitted in the report about conduct of police officers, including the inspector general of Punjab, city police chief and the local in-charge of police in the area,” Chaudhry said.
Police and locals said the blasphemy allegations stemmed from a drunken argument last Wednesday between a Christian sanitary worker and his Muslim friend, who accused the Christian of making derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him).
Punjab was the scene of one of the worst outbreaks of anti-Christian violence in recent years when a mob burned 77 houses and killed at least seven people in the town of Gojra in 2009 after rumours that a copy of the holy Quran had been desecrated.
AFP
