HRCP holds police, admin responsible for attack on Christians in Lahore
Lahore, Mar. 14 : The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has held the police and the provincial administration responsible for the brutal attack on Christian homes in Lahore's Badami Bagh area that took place earlier this week.
Earlier on March 9, a mob of around 3,000 ransacked and looted houses belonging to the minority community after a Christian man was accused of committing blasphemy against Prophet Mohammad, reports The Dawn.
The HRCP, in its preliminary report after a fact-finding mission to the affected area, said there is enough evidence to suggest that there was a considerable presence of the police force on the scene of occurrence, but the police did not resisted the mob in any way.
The HRCP mission said it found it "disturbing" that the local administration that was clearly aware of the possibility of such an attack failed to take adequate measures either before or even during the attack.
The commission asserted that the warning issued by the police on Friday to the residents establishes conclusively the fact that the administration knew about arson and plunder in advance.
Some of the residents expressed the fear that the local trader community might have played a role in escalating the tensions. A local candidate for the upcoming Trader Association elections was alleged to have played a subversive role in the episode and in particular the incitement.