(ENI) — "As long as the blasphemy law remains in force, we will continue to suffer," said Victor Azariah, general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Pakistan.
Azariah was speaking on the 40th day following an attack by what witnesses said was a hundred-strong mob against Christians in the village of Sangla Hill, 100 kilometres from Lahore, after a Christian had been accused of blasphemy. The crowd arrived in buses and torched Catholic, Presbyterian and Salvation Army places of worship as well as a Roman Catholic convent, a school and an orphanage.
Christians, who account for about 3 million of Pakistan's population of 162 million, have repeatedly protested about the blasphemy law, which punishes insults against the prophet Mohammed with a death sentence or life imprisonment.
Several Christians have been sentenced to death although the verdicts were later overturned in higher courts. But in more than half a dozen cases Christians charged with blasphemy were killed before the start of their trial or after they had been acquitted.
Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Roman Catholic Church in Pakistan said that though the government has started rebuilding the churches destroyed by the mob, "Sangla is still simmering."
More than 3,000 Muslims gathered in the troubled town in early December demanding the unconditional release of 88 Muslims arrested for the attack on Christian targets. Muslim clerics have also called for public hanging of the Christian charged with blasphemy.
Joseph Francis, a Christian activist, said many Christian families who had fled the violence and since returned were still "living in fear."
