by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - On May 15, a mob of over 200 Muslims attacked a Christian community in the Chak 5 village of Pakistan’s Punjab province, ransacking homes and seriously injuring eight people, International Christian Concern reports. Pakistan ranks 5 on the US Open Doors watch list of countries that persecute Christians; the persecution level in the country has been rated as “extreme.”
According to local witnesses, the Chak 5 riot was triggered by a dispute between Christian youth cleaning the St. Thomas Catholic Church, and the building’s Muslim landlord. Parish priest Father Khalid Mukhtar told the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN) that the Muslim landlord walked by as the boys were cleaning, and accused them of throwing dust on him.
A large mob of Muslim agitators then descended on the village and the church. “They were armed with glass bottles, stones, axes, batons and bricks,” local resident Mangta Masih told UCAN. “Others used stairs to climb to our roofs and started breaking our furniture. We pleaded to spare the women, but the attack continued for half an hour.”
“They broke the locks, grabbed our hair and pulled us out one by one,” a female survivor told UCAN. “Young girls were assaulted and left with torn clothes.”
The incident was reported to the police, who said on May 16 that the complaint would be filed.