GOWINDH, Pakistan — Muslims who attacked a Pakistani church and declared religious war against Christians from mosque minarets have apologized for their actions, human rights workers said. Police no longer stand guard around Gowindh village’s sole church following its attackers’ apology Oct. 12, a Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) member said.
No charges have been brought against the 300 Punjabi Muslim villagers who vandalized the New Apostolic Church at 6 a.m. Oct. 10. The mob broke church windows, threw dung on its walls and cut wires to the church’s loudspeaker.
But subsequent threats against Gowindh’s Christians were even more serious than the initial attack, Mehboob Khan of the HRCP said. Following these acts of vandalism, Muslim clerics called for jihad, Islamic holy war, against the Christian “infidels.” The clerics issued the call from the town’s eight mosques, Khan said.
Another HRCP worker who visited the village, located east of Lahore on the Indian border, said that the threats had included demands for Christians to convert to Islam.
“Become Muslims or be prepared to fight or die,” the clerics announced from the mosque loudspeakers, HRCP member Nadeem Anthony said. “This was the first time it happened, which is why the villagers were so scared.”
Muslim community leaders Daler Khan, Haji Yaseen Gardor and Tariq Mehar later signed the statement of apology in the presence of 100 Muslims, Christian leaders and local police, the Union for Catholic Asia News (UCAN) reported. In a euphemistic reference to the calls for jihad issued from mosque minarets, the signatories also promised not to misuse loudspeakers in the future.
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