Pakistan Acquits 42 Christians Accused of Participating in 2015 Riots

01/29/2020 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Lahore has acquitted and ordered the release of 42 Christians accused of participating in the deadly Youhanabad riots that followed the bombing of two churches in 2015. The verdict was reached after settlements were agreed upon with the families of two Muslim men who were wrongfully killed by the rioters.
On March 15, 2015, suicide bombers from the Pakistani Taliban attacked Christ Church and St. John’s Catholic Church in the predominantly Christian neighborhood of Youhanabad, located in Lahore, Pakistan. As a result of those attacks, 15 people were killed, including 11 Christians and four Muslims. Following the bombings, enraged Christians took to the streets in protest. There, two Muslim men, Babar Noman and Hafiz Naeem, were wrongfully accused of participating in the bombings and were lynched by the mob.
In response, Pakistani authorities unleashed a campaign of mass arrests in Youhanabad. Christian men suspected of participating in the March 15 riots were arrested and taken into custody for questioning. For weeks, reports of abuse and torture quickly circulated among Youhanabad’s Christian community.

In 2016, the ATC indicted 42 Christians for their alleged participation in the riots and the lynching of Noman and Naeem. All were remanded to judicial custody where abuse and poor living conditions were regularly reported by the prisoners’ families. As a result of this abuse and the poor living conditions, two Christians, Indrias Masih and Usman Shaukat, died in custody in 2017.

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