Muslims save Christians during the Jaranwala rampage. The mosque’s thunderous call to protest alleged blasphemy by Christians woke Pastor Javed Bhatti from his sleep, not the usual Azaan.
He had an instinct that something was wrong.
He gathered his family and dashed to the street, where other Christians were already pouring out of their homes into narrow alleyways.
“Some were running barefoot and some fled in rickshaws. There was chaos everywhere,” he told AFP on Thursday, a day after hundreds of Muslim men rampaged through the streets, burning homes and churches.
“The children were shouting, ‘run, run, the clerics are coming! They will attack us’,” his sister Naila Bhatti added.
In Pakistan, Christians make up about 2% of the total population and are concentrated in the social strata.
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More than 5,000 people reside in the Christian neighbourhood of Jaranwala; the majority of them are sanitary workers earning pitiful wages and sharing small homes with up to 18 relatives.
As Muslims save Christians during the Jaranwala rampage, they flocked to the streets as fear spread throughout the neighbourhood to alert and protect their neighbours.
Pastor Bhatti stated, “The crowd came from outside (this area), but the local Muslims here helped us and tried to save us.”
In order to protect Christian homes from the violence, Muslims quickly pinned verses from the Quran to their doors, according to Tariq Rasool, who lives in the same winding street as Bhatti.
“Two women were running. I opened the door of my house for them and let them inside. They were very worried but I consoled them,” the 58-year-old Muslim said.
The mob swelled in size and anger throughout the day, with hundreds at its peak rioting through the streets. By nightfall, at least four churches and a dozen houses and shops had been burned and ransacked, according to a news agency team at the scene.
Imran Qadri, a Muslim shopkeeper, said both faiths had long lived peacefully alongside each other in the neighbourhood: “They are our brothers. They share our sorrow and joy and we share their sorrow and joy.”
He opened his home to two Christian women as they fled the foreseen destruction. “They are still inside our house. My family helped them, provided them with food and they spent the night with us,” Qadri said, standing alongside Bhatti.
Further down the street, Parveen Bibi said she was woken up by her young children screaming: “Muslims are coming to burn our houses!”
“We took rickshaws to the home of our Muslim neighbours. The door was open and we all went inside. I was accompanied by women, my two daughters-in-law and children. The women said:
‘You are safe here, don’t worry’,” she explained tearfully, standing in the rubble of her home.
More than 300 people fled during the first hours of the riot, according to a few Christians who went back to their homes on Thursday to assess the damage, but hundreds more left during the night and on Thursday to stay with family in other towns.
Police are looking for two Christian brothers accused of desecrating the Holy Quran and have detained over 100 people allegedly connected to the violence.
Although the mob has dispersed and hundreds of police are now policing the area, many residents are still too terrified to go back home.
For Pastor Bhatti, returning has brought more pain for his family: “My own house was destroyed. This was our entire life’s earnings. Now how will we live here again?”
Separately, police guarded the Christian neighbourhood on Thursday, the second day of the tragic incident in Jaranwala.
“All the Christians have left their homes and taken refuge here and there,” Fayaz Masih Khokhar, a Christian man who had travelled from nearby Lahore to show solidarity with the community told the news agency.
On Thursday, government officials condemned the violence, while small protests were held in several cities calling for Christians to be protected.
“The current sad situation in the country demands that the leadership and religious figures of all religions and faiths play their key and fundamental role in safeguarding national unity,” the Bishop of Lahore, Nadeem Kamran, said in a statement.
