During the August 16, 2023 riots in Jalanwara, Pakistan, the attorneys said 10 Muslims involved in burning church buildings and burning Christian homes.
Despite strong evidence against them, Faisalabad anti-terrorism judge Javed Iqbal Sheikh on Wednesday (June 4) acquitted 10 suspects registered by Lundianwala police for burning the Salvation Army church, looting Siddiq Masi’s house, looting and looting Akmal Bhatti’s house.
“The police intentionally ignored the robust evidence against the accused and failed to conduct an appropriate investigation that led to the accused’s innocence,” Batty told Christian Daily International Morning Star News, adding that Masi has identified all those accused of looting their homes with prison identity documents.
The suspects included Ausaf Ali, his two sons Shamoan Ali and Saleem Ali, Usama Akbar, Muhammad Idrees, Atif Hussain, Muhammad Nadeem, Muhammad Azam and Muhammad Ashraf.
“We have tried our best to prove the case against the defendant based on evidence recorded by the police officer and 23 witnesses, including three Christians, Siddiq Masi, Leakat Gill and Iqbal Masi.
“We have continuously raised the issue of flawed police investigations in all 22 cases registered against the rioters on August 16, 2023, but the plea for justice fell into deaf ears,” the lawyer said.
Batti, who represented both the church and Sidike, said the incident was registered in a complaint of Station House Officer (SHO) of the Randianwalla Police, who arrested the suspect at the crime scene.
Also, Batti, the Minority Alliance Pakistan (MAP), chair of the Christian socio-political movement, is a solid defending Pakistan’s Christian rights. He said some Christians also played a role in undermining the Jalanwara case at the request of state authorities.
“These vested elements took on the role of Christian representatives themselves and held multiple meetings with police and district administration officials,” he said. “These meetings were merely photoshoots to show that Christians across Pakistan and around the world strive for justice, but the truth is that they were working solely to protect the interests of the government.”
The outcome of their meetings is clear, and the results of the rest of the cases will not be the same, lamented Batty.
Star News from Christian Daily Morning has reliable information that some Christian groups, including senior leaders of the Church of Pakistan, received hundreds of thousands of dollars from foreign donors to pursue the Jalanwara legal case in the courts and Lahore High Courts, but did not use the money for their intended purposes. Most Christian lawyers working in these groups voluntarily filed lawsuits, and as a result, many of them lost interest in the case a few months later.
Christians of more than 25 churches and 85 churches in Jalan Warateshir in Faisalabad district, Punjab, were plundered, plundered and looted by a frenzied crowd of thousands of Muslims after two Christian brothers allegedly died of Quaran on August 16, 2023, writing blasphemous content. The attack sparked nationwide condemnation.
More than 300 Muslims have been arrested in the riots, but the majority of suspects have been rescued or released from the lawsuit due to flaws in the police investigation.
Of the 5,213 suspects, 380 were arrested and 4,833 remained common, according to Amnesty International.
“Of of the suspects arrested, 228 were released on bail and 77 others were charged against them,” Babu Ram Pants, Deputy Regional Director of South Asia at Amnesty International, said at a press conference on the first anniversary of the incident. “Despite the assurance of accountability of the authorities, severely inadequate behaviour has enabled an environment of immunity for the perpetrators of Jalanwara’s violence.”
Bloody accusations are common in Pakistan, and those convicted of the charge of humiliation of Muhammad, the Islamic prophet, could be sentenced to death. Authorities have not yet been sentenced to death for blasphemy, but often the accusations alone can cause riots and incite violence to incite violence.
The two Christian brothers of Jalanwara were acquitted of blasphemous asp guilty after the anti-terrorism court ruled that it was framed by another Christian following a personal dispute.
Pakistan ranked 8th on the 2025 World Watchlist, where it’s the hardest place to become a Christian.
