“All the Muslim residents flared up and shouted at us saying they would burn our houses and cut us into pieces.”
Tolerance.
“Pakistani Christians’ homes ransacked by mob, after son falsely charged with abduction, rape,” World Watch Monitor, August 28, 2018:
A Pakistani family seeks justice almost two months after their 22 year old son was falsely accused of abducting a 19 year old woman, which led in turn to the looting and ransacking of Christians’ houses.
Early on 9 July, Nabeela Bibi of Rahimabad village (78/RB), Sheikhupura, went missing; her father Muhammad Hanif said he suspected she’d eloped with her next-door neighbor, 22-year-old Christian Waheed Masih.
“All the Muslim residents flared up and shouted at us saying they would burn our houses and cut us into pieces,” Waheed’s brother Nasir Masih told World Watch Monitor.
The village has only 10 Christian families: most of them are bonded laborers in brick kilns; others work as janitors in different cities. So most of their men had already left when the incident took place.
The Christians assured everyone that they had no idea where Nabeela had gone, but no one believed them and the situation kept getting more tense all day.
Nasir told WWM: “The mob took my mother and beat her publicly. Someone alerted the police, who rescued her from the mob but then took her into custody to pressure us to produce Waheed at the police station. I eventually brought Waheed back (early on 10 July) and presented him before the Muslims of the area….
In the family’s application to the Punjab Chief Minister and Secretary (and Supreme Court), Nasir stated “the imam announced more than once on the loudspeaker that all Muslims should gather at the center of the village, and ‘Don’t let even a single Christian live in the village!’ Following this, a large number of Muslims gathered and then attacked the houses of the Christians.”
Nasir stated that at least 10 men entered their house, broke open trunks and cupboards and stole gold ornaments (worth roughly US $1,000), household goods (like LCDs and blankets) worth US $2500, and money roughly worth US $300.
The women and children had to run for safety when the looting and ransacking started.
Nasir says that an announcement at about 11pm from the mosque loudspeaker demanded that everyone gather, after which Christians started fleeing the village – except Waheed’s 80-year-old grandmother Traizan Bibi – who later witnessed that the attackers were led by Nabeela’s cousin Muhammad Shahbaz.
“The next morning, again a similar announcement was made from the mosque at which (we have come to know) a local landlord, Muhammad Aslam, reprimanded the imam, asking him if he desired bloodshed,” Nasir added.
It is yet not clear if the imam himself, Muhammad Rizwan Ghafoor (28), made the announcements or someone else. The Christians believe that an unwilling Ghafoor was pressured by Nabeela’s relatives….