Pastor shot at in Pakistan's Punjab, days after mob attack on Christians in province

A pastor was shot at and wounded by an unknown assailant in Pakistan's Punjab province, weeks after a number of churches and Christian homes were burnt down by a mob on blasphemy allegations.

Reverend Father Eleazar Vicky, who serves at the Myong-Sang Naserth church in Jaranwala tehsil of Faisalabad district, survived the assassination attempt on Sunday evening while returning home from the church.

According to police, Father Eleazar was returning home from the church when an unidentified bearded man shot and injured him. He was shifted to a hospital where a doctor operated on him and removed a bullet from his right arm. His condition is said to be out of danger.

Police officer Navid Ahmad told reporters on Tuesday that a case has been registered against unidentified suspects on the pastor's complaint.

"We have deployed police personnel for the security of Pastor Eleazar and rounded up a couple of suspects," Ahmad said, adding that the security of churches has also been beefed up.

The pastor, in his statement to police, said that an objectionable religious slogan in Arabic was written on the outer wall of the church. Besides, he was also mentioned as a blasphemer.

"I informed the police, which whitewashed it. A few days ago, when I went to drop my son off at school, a few bearded people intercepted me and said, 'As our written slogans have been deleted from the wall of your church, soon you will also be deleted'," he said.

The pastor suspected a radical Islamist party might be behind the attack on him.

On August 16, a mob attacked scores of churches and Christian localities over blasphemy allegations against a Christian man in Jaranwala town of Faisalabad district, 130 km from Punjab's provincial capital city, Lahore.

They also attacked a Christian cemetery and vandalised the office of the local assistant commissioner.

Police have arrested 180 suspects, including the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) activists, in connection with the unprecedented mob attack.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said that the mob attack was a part of a larger hate campaign against the Christian community.

"The attack on the minority community cannot be entirely deemed as random or spontaneous, with a suspicion that it was orchestrated as part of a larger hate campaign against the local Christians while the role of police and its ability to effectively mitigate and control the situation was also questioned," a report by the independent human rights body said.

Blasphemy is a sensitive issue in Pakistan, where anyone deemed to have insulted Islam or Islamic figures can face the death penalty. Often, an accusation can cause riots and incite mobs to violence, lynching and killings.

According to the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), the Punjab province recorded over 75 per cent of the abuse of blasphemy laws cases in the past 36 years.

Minorities, including Christians and Hindus, have been frequently subjected to blasphemy allegations, and some tried and even sentenced under blasphemy in Pakistan.