1,000 frightened and homeless Christians forced to sleep rough. Number of churches and chapels targeted rises to 21. Archbishop: Christians are ‘2nd class citizens to be terrorised at will’. Police act to enforce law and order
Nearly 1,000 panic-stricken Christians in Pakistan spent last night in fields of sugar cane having narrowly escaped rampaging mobs who set about targeting their homes, destroying everything down to the last lightbulb.
Reporting back from a visit to Jaranwala, near Faisalabad, where Islamists yesterday (Wednesday, 16th August) carried out a wave of terror, sources close to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) said 21 places of worship had been attacked, many of them torched.
The ACN source, who cannot be named for safety reasons, said that over a wide area, both rural and urban, Christian homes had been singled out for attack in what he said bore all the hallmarks of a pre-meditated act of violence.
He said: “Many of the families spent the night in sugar cane fields – up to 1,000 people.
“They had been running away, trying to find somewhere where they could rest.