Pakistan: Two Christian brothers arrested over blasphemy charges
Two Christian brothers have been arrested in Pakistan over blasphemy charges, two days after a mob burned down churches and destroyed houses in Jaranwala, media reports said.
According to reports, the two brothers were accused of desecrating the Koran, the holy religious book of the Muslim community.
Meanwhile, Representatives of the Commission for Inter-Faith Harmony have urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the Chief of Army Staff and other government functionaries to form a commission to probe the violence in Jaranwala.
Fathers Danial Fayaz, Jamil Albert, Shahzad Khokhar, James Castloino and others said at a press conference at a local press club on Friday that if perpetrators of such crimes had been punished in the past, the Jaranwala incident would not have occurred, reports Dawn News.
They said that the Christian community had always condemned incidents of violence against any community or desecration of sacred things.
They said that the properties of 70 poor families were burnt down, damaged and looted and 21 churches were ransacked during rampage in Jaranwala.
They also demonstrated outside the press club over the incident.
Masih Ittehad Council of Pakistan members also protested outside the press club over the incident.
The council president Maqbool Masih Kohkhar, Allama Masood Jamal of Anjuman Taraqqi Pasand Musannifeen and others who led the protest said that religious minorities had always been targeted in the country over the past 76 years, reports Dawn News.