Pak Police varieties particular unit for minority locations of worship after church assault

Amid rising assaults on non secular minorities in Pakistan, the Islamabad Police on Thursday constituted a 70-member particular unit for the “protection of minority places of worship and communities” within the nationwide capital.

“Seventy jawans (policemen) have been posted in the ‘Minority Protection Unit’,” the Islamabad Police stated in a submit on X, previously generally known as Twitter.

It stated all district cops shall be accountable for the safety of minority locations of worship and communities of their areas.

The unit, established as per the suggestions of the National Minorities Commission, will carry out its duties underneath the supervision of SSP operations.

“Liaison with minority committees shall be strengthened at every divisional stage,” the police added.

It additional acknowledged that the unit policemen have additionally been chosen from the current recruitment for the Minority Protection Unit.

The transfer comes a day after an enraged mob ransacked and torched 21 church buildings and a number of other homes of Christians over blasphemy allegations in Jaranwala city of Faisalabad district, 130 km from Punjab’s provincial capital Lahore.

A Christian cemetery and the workplace of the native assistant commissioner had been additionally vandalised.

Police within the Jaranwala space on Thursday took a ‘curfew-like’ measure to revive peace and arrested over 100 suspects together with activists of radical Islamists Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) for his or her alleged involvement in violence a day earlier.

More than 3,000 policemen and two firms of Pakistan Rangers have been deployed in Jaranwala following Wednesday’s riots.

The authorities has imposed part 144 prohibiting the gathering of 4 or extra folks in Jaranwala. Besides, all instructional establishments, enterprise centres and markets remained closed in Jaranwala on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Punjab authorities has issued instructions to type a high-level inquiry committee to research the incident, according to orders issued by caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar.

The incident sparked nationwide outrage from all political events, civil society and the media.

Minorities together with Christians and Hindus in Pakistan have often been subjected to blasphemy allegations and a few had been tried and even sentenced underneath the powerful blasphemy.

According to a report by the Centre for Peace and Justice Pakistan in June final yr, based mostly on information collected from the National Database and Registration Authority, Pakistan is house to 22,10,566 folks from the minority Hindu neighborhood adopted by Christians 18,73,348.

Published On:

Aug 17, 2023