Pakistan mobs kill Christians

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Hundreds of rioting Muslims attacked Christians in eastern Pakistan yesterday, burning and looting their homes in a rampage that killed six Christians, including a child, and injured 10 others in the latest violence against minorities in the conservative Muslim country.

The unrest started late Thursday, when members of a banned extremist Muslim organization began torching Christian homes in a village in the Punjabi city of Gojra after allegations that a Quran had been defaced, Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti said.

Violence flared again yesterday, when shots were fired on a peaceful Muslim rally passing by a Christian neighborhood, said local minister Dost Mohammad Khosa. It remained unclear who fired the shots, he said.

"That made things worse. We are sure some miscreant elements have tried to exploit the situation," he said.

Television footage showed baton-wielding crowds running through the streets, blocking traffic and a railway line. Furniture lay jumbled outside blackened and burning homes, while a group of people rushed a man with burn injuries through the streets on a hand-pulled wooden cart. Gunfire could also be heard.

Authorities said the six people killed included a child and four women. Bhatti said that about 40 Christian homes had been burned since Thursday.

Kamran Michael, provincial minister for minorities, said the situation remained tense into the night, though police had dispersed the mob. He said negotiations were under way among government officials, representatives from the minority community, and the villagers.

Michael said he feared the death toll could rise as crews cleared the debris of burned houses. He said that 10 people had been injured, four by gunshots, and that two of those were in critical condition.

Paramilitary troops were sent to Gojra to help police control the situation, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said, amid allegations that police had failed to respond quickly enough to prevent the violence from escalating.

"Usually, Muslims and Christians live together peacefully. There have been some miscreants involved in this incident. We are investigating that," Malik said.

Christians make up a tiny minority of Pakistan's population of 160 million people, who are predominantly Sunni Muslim. Although the two communities generally live peacefully, Muslim radicals have periodically targeted churches and Christians.

Minorities also face intimidation mainly due to discriminatory laws, including one that carries the death penalty for using derogatory language against Islam, the Quran, or the Prophet Muhammad. This law is often misused to settle personal scores and rivalries.

"The religious riots . . . are frightening, where Islamic religious zealots have taken the law into their own hands," Mehdi Hassan, deputy head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said in a statement.

"Islamic militants from outside the village [have] created an atmosphere of fear and [have] destroyed and burnt property using firearms and explosive," the statement said, and urged authorities to intervene to save the lives of Christians in the area.