| |
National Council of Churches in Pakistan (NCCP) report on Gojra Incident
August 6, 2009:
The Gojra Tragedy is another shameful incidence of religious intolerance and violence against minorities in Pakistan. This is not the first time that the fanatics/extremists amongst the majority community have committed serious acts of aggression and murder against the minority groups for no fault of theirs.
A brutal attack on Christians [took place] in a village called Korian near Gojra town on 31st July 2009, where more than 50 houses were burned and the people were terrorized on the pretext of desecrating the Holy Quran, which in fact never took place.
After two days the Christians living in Gojra town were attacked and seven members of a family were burned alive, two shot dead and their houses were burnt completely.
An emergent meeting of all Church leaders and primary members of the community was called on 3rd August 2009 at the NCCP Ecumenical Center and unanimously condemned the incident of Korian and Gojra.
It was further resolved that the NCCP, along with the Catholic Bishop Conference and representatives of the community at large, [urgently inform] the Government and Parliament that from the day the Blasphemy Law was enacted, hundreds of Christians have been subjected to prison and torture at no fault of their own.
It was also resolved that the leaders of the community with the support of the community at large demand that government repeal 295-B and -C of the Blasphemy Laws [concerning defiling a copy of the Quran and defiling Mohammed's name] and save the community from religious fanatics and terrorists. For decades these acts of extremism and intolerance have taken place in Shanti Nagar, Sangla Hill, Bahawalpur, Taxila, Murree, Bamian Wala, Kasur and now Gojra and many other places.
It was decided that a protest and prayer meeting be held of all the churches on 11th August, 2009, at Naulakha Church, Lahore, in remembrance of the martyrs of Gojra as an expression of solidarity with the Gojra victims. We are grateful to the media and the civil society and the human rights activist for their support at this sad moment. We also appreciate the response of the Government to the situation.
We hereby send day to day report of the sad incident.
National Council of Churches in Pakistan
32-B, Shahre-e-Fatima Jinnah
Lahore, Pakistan
Web site
|
