Pakistani Muslims attack church, torture Christians

01/20/2009
PAKISTAN
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, legal-aid advisor 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 rest