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| Attacks on the Christian community in Jaranwala: What happened that in a few hours it escalated to arson? |
Afzal Masih feels as if in those few hours the fork of time has traveled back several decades and the scenes he is witnessing are those of the partition of India in 1947 when there were massive riots, arson, and encirclement. Later, thousands of people had to leave everything behind and flee.
Anyone who saw it says that a similar scene took place on Wednesday in Isa Nagri, located on the side of Cinema Chowk in the Jardanwala area. A few papers were found in the corner of a street in a Muslim neighborhood, following which people were furious. was
Locals say these were scrolls of the Quran that were allegedly desecrated. According to him, the photograph of the alleged desecrator father and son was also present on a sheet and their name was also written on it.
The news of this had reached the neighboring Christian community. Those who lived there knew what that might mean.
Many people took their children, and women with them and left everything at home, and ran away. Some remained there, hoping that the situation would not worsen. After all, their Muslim neighbors know them well, they have been living together here for decades.
Soon announcements were made from the nearby mosque. In these announcements, Muslims were being asked to protest on the streets. After that, those who had stayed behind with any hope left the house and ran away. Those whose relatives live in the nearby city of Faisalabad went to them, those who had no one else took refuge in the fields along with their women and children.
In no time, crowds began to gather in front of the Catholic St. Paul's Church in Esnagri. Some of them were carrying sticks, and some were carrying kerosene bottles. They wanted to burn the church. Initially, a few policemen and a few young men from the local Christian community tried to resist, but the crowd grew and soon stormed the church.
After that, Afzal Masih says that there was a scene of resurrection. We felt that this is not Pakistan, we are not its citizens. I felt that just as people's houses were burnt during partition, they were forced to migrate, the same is happening to us.
The mob broke into the church and ransacked it, took the belongings and threw them out, and then set fire to the church. When they returned from there, they set fire to several houses around and in front of the church. These are two or three marle small houses built in the old style.
Then someone in the crowd called out that the house of the men who had allegedly desecrated the scrolls of the Koran was in the street behind the church. The vandalizing crowd marched towards this street.
Some people were already setting fire there. This settlement is also called Christian Colony and dozens of families belonging to the Christian community are living here in a few streets.
Then, in the next few minutes, the family's house, motorcycles, and household goods were completely burnt to black.
The house next to them belongs to Muhammad Rashid, who belongs to the Muslim community. They stood in front of their house, so no one went to their house.
Mohammad Rashid says that in the beginning, when the crowd was less, he and many other Muslims living in this settlement tried to save the houses of many Christian community neighbors from the crowd.
We stood in front of it, and we said this is our house. We saved some, and the crowd went away but this crowd was constantly increasing and it became difficult to stop with such a large crowd, they burnt many houses and looted the goods.
Both Afzal Masih and Mohammad Rashid say that those who torched the church and the houses of their Christian neighbors on Wednesday were 'not from our town'. They came from outside.
Who were the outsiders?
Muhammad Arshad has been living in Isa Nagri for the past 45 years. He says that in all these years he has never seen the Christian and Muslim communities living here fighting with each other.
They come to our houses, we go to their houses. They send food to each other and help in each other's work on wedding occasions.
The Christian Colony, located on the side of Cinema Chowk, has a slightly spacious and paved street entrance. There are mostly Muslim houses on this street. From the side of this street, a small street emerges on the right side and it is here that the papers were found.
After being wide like this for several furlongs, the street narrows a bit and where it ends, the houses of the Christian community begin and here the street widens again. Apart from the church, there are 15 to 20 houses in the Christian community.
Muhammad Arshad says that our women have never felt unsafe while going to the neighborhood of the Christian community at night, similarly, their women also come easily to our houses. We have this kind of relationship.
He says that no Muslim in his neighborhood can even think of burning the houses of his Christian neighbors. The people who did this were not from here. Those people came from nearby villages or came here from other areas.
Muhammad Arshad says that whatever happened happened very quickly. He said that around six o'clock in the morning, the women of the neighborhood and those who came to pray saw those papers, and around ten eleven o'clock the chain of burning started.
Apart from this Christian colony, there were colonies of members of the Christian community at various places in the city of Jardanwala in Punjab. In all of them, churches and houses were burnt in the same way.
What was the point?
Mohammad Arshad told BBC that when women and men left their homes for a walk, they saw some papers scattered on the street, on which something had been written in red ink. Also, there was a handwritten note written in the same red ink.
On top of the same writing were pictures of two people and their names, telephone numbers, and addresses were also written.
They say that the people of the neighborhood knew and recognized the father and son in these pictures very well. No one in the neighborhood believed that they could do such a thing. We have known him for decades.
Muhammad Arshad is also surprised that 'if a person does wrong, why would he reveal his name and address himself.'
He and others living in the neighborhood believe that someone has tried to trap these members of the Christian community, but they don't know who it could be and why he wants to do it.
He said that around seven o'clock, one of the accused's brothers was returning home after finishing work from a factory, when people stopped him on the street corner and showed him the documents.
He also expressed his indifference and surprise. He took some papers from people and took them home to show them to his father and brother.
Muhammad Arshad said that his brother and father were sleeping when he picked them up and showed them the papers and asked what it was. These two father and son also expressed their non-relationship. Those three also came here to us, they said that they did not do any such thing and still, they apologized to the people.
Muhammad Arshad's brother Farid Ahmad said that after the father and son went back, announcements were made from the mosque shortly after, urging people to take to the streets to protest against the alleged desecration.
"In the beginning, very few people gathered and they were mostly young boys."
He says that if the administration had taken notice at that time and the police had taken action, the later disaster could have been prevented.
How did the word spread?
A Jaranwala police official, requesting anonymity, said that initially, the then-assistant commissioner of Jaranwala came to know about the matter. He also belonged to the Christian community.
According to the police official, a few people who were angry at that time demanded the Assistant Commissioner to arrest the people whose photos and names are present with the desecrated papers, but by that time the three father and son were at home. They had left the house with their parents.
According to the police official, the assistant commissioner asked the people for a few hours, but when the people came to know that the three fathers and sons had run away, they got the wrong idea that the assistant commissioner had deliberately helped them to run away.
From there, they say, people became agitated, announcements were made in mosques and crowds began to gather.
He said that in the same way, announcements were made from the mosque of one area to the mosque of another area, the word reached the surrounding villages and from there, a large number of people started gathering in Jaranwala city.
According to the police official, settlements of the Christian community located at different places in the city were targeted.
IG Punjab Usman Anwar told BBC that 17 churches were burnt while 85 houses were damaged, but the process of counting the damaged buildings is still going on.
On the other hand, several people from the Christian community told the BBC that more than 20 churches were burned in the riots in various places, including the Catholic St. Paul's Church in Christian Colony and the historic Salvation Army Church in the city. Jaranwala police official has also confirmed this to BBC.
Most of them were small churches that people built in neighborhoods for worship.
The police official said that such a large number of people had entered the city from nearby villages that it was difficult for Jaranwala police resources to control them.
"The police used to try to control the people in one place, but it was known that arson had started in another place. In many places, the angry crowd was so large that the police were present but helpless.
Clashes continued between the police and the protesters at many places till late at night, but after the arrival of more personnel from other cities, the police managed to control the situation.
Now more than 3000 policemen have been deployed at different places. Business life seems frozen in the areas where violent protests took place.
"They burned everything, looted what was left"
Some people who had left the Christian community's home had returned on Thursday morning. Among them were Parveen Bibi and her neighbor Sundus. As soon as they reached the door of their house, both of them screamed. They screamed and cried.
Parveen Bibi has three sons and three daughters. She says that when the announcements were made in the mosques in the morning, people told them to run away with their children. Mosques and Muslim neighborhoods were not far away. They ran away with the children and left all their belongings at home.
People said they are coming, they will kill everyone, and they will set them on fire. Take your children and run away from here.
Parveen Bibi's tears were not stopping when he spoke. Behind them, the door of their small house was open. Looking inside, it looked like there was a robbery. The equipment was broken and scattered. Some broken things were lying outside.
When Parveen Bibi returned, there was nothing left in her house. “Nothing,” she says. They did not leave anything. Those who eat have also taken the utensils, and those who wear have also taken their clothes.
Wiping her tears, she says not even beds. Her husband does a menial job and she survives by doing housework. What they had accumulated over the years was gone in a matter of hours.
Right in front of their house is Sundus's house. Sundus is scheduled to get married in November this year. Her father had collected her dowry from his life savings.
There is nothing left of it now. Jewelry has been taken, not cash. Some were burnt here. All the things of my dowry are gone, there is only one refrigerator, and she is lying upstairs, otherwise, they have left nothing.
Sundus does not know where her dowry will come from in such a short time and how her life will be in the future, but she is not alone because this is the story of most of the villages of Jaranwala's Christian community.
They don't know if they will ever be able to live in the same town again without fear and danger.