KOT ADDU, Pakistan — Christians in south Punjab province are accusing senior district officials of supporting local Muslims who allegedly demolished 150 Christian graves and desecrated holy relics — and are now threatening Christians seeking legal redress. In the Kot Addu area of Muzaffargarh district, Waseem Shakir said that an influential Muslim group last Nov. 6 took illegal possession of a 1,210-square-yard piece of land designated as a Christian cemetery and set up shops on it. “The situation has come to the point where even the local police have warned their higher-ups that the tension could provoke a Gojra-type incident,” he said, adding that Muslim instigators are now openly trying to intimidate him and Boota Masih, who registered a case with police, into dropping the matter.
In Gojra on Aug. 1, 2009, Muslim hordes acting on an unsubstantiated rumor of blasphemy of the Quran — and whipped into a frenzy by local imams and banned terrorist groups — killed at least seven Christians, looted more than 100 houses and set fire to 50 of them. At least 19 people were injured in the melee. Christians had repeatedly taken up the Kot Addu issue with District Police Officer Chaudhry Manzoor and District Coordination Officer Tahir Khurshid. Manzoor rejected the Christians’ accusations. “It’s not as serious a case as they are portraying,” he said. “The people who have built shops on the land are not illegal occupants but the real owners.”
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