MULTAN, Pakistan: Most of the suspects in a rampage last year against minority Christians in eastern Pakistan over alleged blasphemy are not in custody and authorities have failed to deliver justice to the victims, a human rights group said Friday.
“More than 90 percent of the suspects of the attack in Jaranwala, in Punjab’s Faisalabad district, are still at large,” Amnesty International said in a statement on the anniversary of one of Pakistan’s worst attacks on Christians, in which churches and homes of Christians were destroyed.
The violence erupted after Muslims alleged that they saw a local Christian and his friend desecrating pages from a Qur’an. The attack drew nationwide condemnation. No one died, as terrified Christians quickly fled to safer places.
Amnesty International said it obtained its information from police after filing a Right to Information Request. It said of the 5,213 accused, 380 were arrested and 4,833 were still at large. It said of those who were arrested, 228 were released on bail and 77 others had the charges against them dropped.
It said trials of the suspects have not started and about 40 percent of victims who lost property are still awaiting government compensation.
Abid Khan, the regional police chief, said investigators have referred the cases of suspects linked to the violence to an anti-terrorism court, and their trial was expected to start soon.
“Despite the authorities’ assurances of accountability, the grossly inadequate action has allowed a climate of impunity for the perpetrators of the Jaranwala violence,” Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for South Asia, said in the statement.
Blasphemy accusations are common in Pakistan. Under its laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death. While authorities have yet to carry out any death sentences for blasphemy, often just the accusation can spark riots and incite mobs to violence, lynching and killings.
Yaqoob Yousaf, a priest in Jaranwala, told The Associated Press on Friday that most of the suspects in the attacks had been freed. He said attacks on Christians on false accusations are continuing and that Christians are “still living in a state of fear” in various parts of the country.
Most suspects in a 2023 anti-Christian rampage in Pakistan are still at large, a rights group says
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Most suspects in a 2023 anti-Christian rampage in Pakistan are still at large, a rights group says
- “More than 90 percent of the suspects of the attack in Jaranwala, in Punjab’s Faisalabad district, are still at large,” Amnesty International said
- The violence erupted after Muslims alleged that they saw a local Christian and his friend desecrating pages from a Qur’an
Ethiopia’s prime minister accuses Eritrea of mass killings during Tigray war
- Landlocked Ethiopia says that Eritrea is arming rebel groups, while Eritrea says Ethiopia’s aspiration is to gain access to a seaport
- Ethiopia lost sovereign access to the Red Sea when Eritrea seceded in 1993 after decades of guerrilla warfare
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia’s government Tuesday for the first time acknowledged the involvement of troops from neighboring Eritrea in the war in the Tigray region that ended in 2022, accusing them of mass killings, amid reports of renewed fighting in the region.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, while addressing parliament Tuesday, accused Eritrean troops fighting alongside Ethiopian forces of mass killings in the war, during which more than 400,000 people are estimated to have died.
Eritrean and Ethiopian troops fought against regional forces in the northern Tigray region in a war that ended in 2022 with the signing of a peace agreement.
Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel told The Associated Press that Ahmed’s comments were “cheap and despicable lies” and did not merit a response.
Both nations have been accusing each other of provoking a potential civil war, with landlocked Ethiopia saying that Eritrea is arming and funding rebel groups, while Eritrea says Ethiopia’s aspiration is to gain access to a seaport.
“The rift did not begin with the Red Sea issue, as many people think,” Ahmed told parliamentarians. “It started in the first round of the war in Tigray, when the Eritrean army followed us into Shire and began demolishing houses, massacred our youth in Axum, looted factories in Adwa, and uprooted our factories.”
“The Red Sea and Ethiopia cannot remain separated forever,” he added.
Ethiopia lost sovereign access to the Red Sea when Eritrea seceded in 1993 after decades of guerrilla warfare.
Gebremeskel said the prime minister has only recently changed his tune in his push for access to the Red Sea.
Ahmed “and his top military brass were profusely showering praises and State Medals on the Eritrea army and its senior officers. … But when he later developed the delusional malaise of ‘sovereignty access to the sea’ and an agenda of war against Eritrea, he began to sing to a different chorus,” he said.
Eritrea and Ethiopia initially made peace after Abiy came to power in 2018, with Abiy winning a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts toward reconciliation.
In June, Eritrea accused Ethiopia of having a “long-brewing war agenda” aimed at seizing its Red Sea ports. Ethiopia recently said that Eritrea was “actively preparing to wage war against it.”
Analysts say an alliance between Eritrea and regional forces in the troubled Tigray region may be forming, as fighting has been reported in recent weeks. Flights by the national carrier to the region were canceled last week over the renewed clashes.
