Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: A three-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC) will take up the case of arson and rampage in the Christian neighbourhood in Jaranwala town of the industrial district of Faisalabad, the latest incident of violence against the religious minority.
On August 16, a crowd vandalised several churches and set scores of houses on fire in Jaranwala after clerics made announcements in the mosques inciting the mob to attack the Christian community under allegations of blasphemy.
The violent mob that committed arson, also looted valuables from the Christian houses that had been abandoned by their owners after the calls of protests from the mosques.
Justice Ijaz-Ul-Ahsan will preside over the bench, comprising Justice Muneeb Akhtar and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail.
Minority leader Samuel Pyaray had moved the SC under a miscellaneous petition, to take notice of the Jaranwala tragedy.
This is the second time that the petition has been scheduled for a hearing.
Last month, CJP Bandial had constituted a three-member bench — comprising himself, Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Shahid Waheed — to hear pleas filed on the Jaranwala incident.
The bench was expected to take up the case on August 22 and notices were issued to all the parties in the case.
However, later it was learnt the Supreme Court deferred the hearing on the issue as the Human Rights Cell had not received the police report on the incident.
“I was told by the Supreme Court that the case is scheduled for hearing tomorrow [Tuesday] but if was informed later that the Human Rights Cell report on the incident has not yet been received which is why the hearing will not be held,” petitioner Pyare had told Geo News back then.
At its peak, more than 5,000 people had poured into the neighbourhood from other districts, with smaller mobs spreading to narrow alleys where they ransacked homes.
