The everyday tension has been increased by the recent marriage between a Christian young man and Muslim young woman in the village.
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KOT LAKHA SINGH (AsiaNews) - Muslim groups have attacked a church and Christian homes in the village of Kot Lakha Singh, in the district of Narowal, province of Punjab. The incident goes back to January 14, and the news was released by Pakistan's National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), after verifying the event with a fact-finding mission carried out on January 19.
Irfan Barkat, head of the NCJP, tells AsiaNews that the violence began with an attack on the home of William Masih, a Catholic of the village. An unspecified number of people tortured those present, including women and children, and then stole money and gold objects from the home. The crowd then attacked the homes of three other Christian families in the village, broke into the church, which is used by both the Catholic and Protestant community, and damaged the furniture and tore the liturgical books and bibles.
The events were reported on January 18 to the police of Nindo Ki, who have not yet made any arrests.
The head of the NCJP explains that at the origin of the violence is the dispute over land that Masih bought a few months ago from a Muslim. The property is also claimed by another inhabitant of the village, Noor Muhammad, who says that he is the legitimate proprietor.
Irfan Barkat says that the small Christian community of Kot Lakha Singh is made up of 25 families (Catholic and Protestant) that, in the overwhelmingly Islamic village, are subjected to constant harassment: "Muslims of the village have socially boycotted the Christians, and Muslim shopkeepers have refused to sell daily use items to Christians."
The everyday tension has been increased by the recent marriage between a Christian young man and Muslim young woman in the village. This has irritated the Muslims, who are now trying to do whatever they can to make the Christians pay for what they believe to be an affront.
Comments
i am a muslims. you christians say that we are terrists, you also say that we attacked a church only one church. before you say anything about us look at your selves you people are the biggest terriosts in the world. examples. g.bush,rice,blair, and many others you killed and bomb thousands of muslims we were living peacefully and spreading out islam with no voilence but you people didn't leave us alone in the 1920s-1945s you attacked yemen, libya, palestan(israel as you call it now) ethiopia, and many other countries. and since the 1990s untill now you killed people in afghanistan, iraq, and other places not because you want to stop terriosim no, it's because you want to kill us all (muslims) and end islam. so what would you expect from us just stay there and watch our muslim brothers getting killed of COURSE WE WILL FIGHT IN ORDER TO PROTECT ISLAM AND MUSLIMS AND OUR NATION. And about the church we attacked do you now how many mosques (our churches) did you you attack and burned down. hundereds. and we only attacked one church and maybe that's not ture maybe it was just burned down and you said we attacked it. you people better look at your selves and be ashamed for what you did. there's more i can say but i don't have time.
someone | 4/11/2009
Peace to all Pakistani's christians.
Damian | 1/22/2009
May GOD Be Praised By All, Everywhere, At All Times!
If we were to have a reversal of the characters in this news item, with Muslims being tortured by Christians (who are in majority) and burning their holy book and desecrating their place of worship - tomorrow practically the whole world would be burning!
But it is not for Christians to act, rather for the GOD of the Christians, WHO will act on their behalf. We will wait and see and at the same time, forgive and pray, that the perpetrators of this violence may repent sooner than later and seek forgiveness from GOD.
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