“We were sleeping at around 5 a.m., when our neighbours started shouting ‘leave your houses and run for life’. We left everything behind and ran to protect our lives and respect (being girls),” two eleven-year-old twin Christian sisters recalling the day of violent attacks on the Christians’ houses in Jaranwala two years ago.
“In this minor age, we have already seen such a major tragedy. Will we have to go through even worse things when we grow up? Are the Christians not citizens of Pakistan? Do they not have respect and dignity,” the young girls asked the Pakistani government on the sixteenth day of their ongoing protest over the state’s inaction against the perpetrators of 16 August 2023, after two years.
Nearly 150 houses and 25 churches were set ablaze by an enraged mob of Muslims, incited by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) leaders, who falsely accused two Christian villagers of desecrating the Qur’an.
These twin sisters, along with their parents, among dozens of other Christian families, fled their houses for safety and returned after weeks just to find them in piles of ashes.
But, they say the discrimination by the majority of Muslims was worse than the arson attack.
“While we were fleeing, we did not know what would happen to us on our way to any safer place. Many people did not even have money to hire a rickshaw (three-wheeler), taxi or van. If someone had it, the Muslim drivers refused to take them by saying: ‘Tum Essai Ho (You are Christians).’”
After two years, the affected families say nothing has been done by the government contrary to its promises to rehabilitate the affected families and prosecute those involved in the violent attacks.
“When we see our burnt houses, burnt churches and burnt Bibles, our hearts ache. Do our future generations have to face the persecution that our elders have faced throughout their lives?” the sisters painfully add.
On the second anniversary of the Jaranwala tragedy, the victim families lost their patience and took to the streets to remind the government of its promises to rebuild their houses, churches and businesses.
The families formed the Victims Committee Jaranwala to press the government to accept and accordingly act on their demands to: take immediate steps for dispensing justice to the victims, arrest the culprits, scrap faulty police investigation and order a fresh probe, compensate losses for damaged properties, and direct dialogue with provincial and federal governments.
Pakistan’s constitution does not allow any individual or a mob to damage the worship places or houses of the members of any religious minority in the country for self-proclaimed justice
The committee also denounced derogatory remarks made by a leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Mufti Owais Aziz, about the worship places of the religious minorities. It also warned that such derogatory language about the religious minorities will not be tolerated in the future.
Over the course of two years, the government's inquiries to determine whether blasphemy was committed by two Christian villagers, identify and arrest the perpetrators of the arson attacks, and punish them under the law have seen no fate.
In February 2024, the then Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa came down hard on the Punjab government saying its “inquiry report was worthy of being thrown in the dustbin.” The top court also found that the government inquiry report lacked details regarding arrests, investigation progress, or culpability.
The top court also ordered the authorities to submit a fresh report within 10 days, but the community leaders say nothing has been done to date.
Bishops in their statement noted that around 300 suspects were arrested by the police, but none of them had been charged so far. On the contrary, many arrested suspects had been released on bail by the trial courts.
Surprisingly, in June 2025, an anti-terrorist court in Toba Tek Singh acquitted 10 men of the charges of burning a church during arson attacks in Jaranwala “over lack of evidence as the prosecution failed to prove the charge.”
At the sit-in, Humaira Mubarak, a resident of Jaranwala, said “This is not the story of just my family. This is a story of every Christian living in Pakistan.”
She asked the government: “How long the mothers, sisters, widows and daughters of those Christians, who have been killed in violence over false blasphemy allegations, will keep sitting out on the streets to beg for justice.”
Ms Mubarak alleged that some innocent Christians arrested in connection with the Jaranwala incident were behind bars for two years without any crime while the actual culprits had not been punished and rather they were released on bail by the court.
Jaranwala Victims Committee member, Shakil Bhatti, said that “Pakistan’s constitution does not allow any individual or a mob to damage the worship places or houses of the members of any religious minority in the country for self-proclaimed justice.”
Neither Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif nor Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif visited the affected Christian families whose protest entered its 16th consecutive day
Yet, from Shanti Nagar to Sargodha and now Jaranwala such incidents of attacking the Christians and their settlements are taking place unabated. Even after the violence in Jaranwala, such incidents are still taking place in different places where the Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and other religious minority members have been trapped over blasphemy accusations,” he added.
Criticising the state for failing to even identify the attackers after two years, Mr Bhatti questioned “Did the aliens come from space to carry out the attack in Jaranwala and then go back? Christian families and kids are still suffering from the trauma of the Jaranwala tragedy.”
Regretting the institutional discrimination against the Christians, he recalled that “Our Christian missionary educational institutes produced Prime Ministers and Ministers, yet our Christian kids are forced to work as ‘janitors’ in grade-IV jobs. Isn’t this discrimination?”
To avert attacks on the religious minorities, he said: “We will have to set the Jaranwala incident as an example by awarding exemplary punishments to those responsible for it to protect the religious minorities in the future.”
Rana Sajjad Parhiyar, vice-chairman of the Interfaith Peace Committee Pakistan, expressed his astonishment over the involvement of the Islamist groups, including the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) in inciting violence against the religious minorities, asking “Which Prophets are these people following by not letting peace prevail in Pakistan?”
Sharing a latest such incident, Mr Parhiyar said in Layyah’s Chak No. 270, the graffiti of Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan Zindabad had appeared on the outer walls of a Christian church.
Sharing another incident depicting societal discrimination, Mr Parhiyar said recently a Lahore judge had suspended his Christian orderly (Ardali) for using his (judge’s) crockery for eating a meal. Such discrimination is eliminating peace and love in our country, he deplored.
He demanded that if the government could not protect the Christians and other religious minorities from persecution by Islamist groups and individuals, then it should allow all the religious minority members to live in a designated part of the country separate from the Muslim majority to ensure safety to their lives, property and worship places.
He stated that the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) was hatching conspiracies against the Christians and other religious minorities in the darkness of night, which should be condemned, and everyone should think twice before acting on any such conspiracy in the future. If prompt steps are not taken then incidents even worse than Jaranwala can take place in the future, he warned.
However, neither Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif nor Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif visited the affected Christian families whose protest entered its 16th consecutive day.
At the protest, the twin sisters beg the government for help. “We fled to another village and hid ourselves in the bushes. Do we have to go through even worse than this in the future? We demand Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to rebuild our burnt houses and churches and punish those responsible for burning our bibles.”