Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti was shot dead in Islamabad, Pakistan on March 2, 2011. (Photo: Pakistan Minorities Ministry)
Anti-Christian violence continues in Pakistan and police are not pursuing the perpetrators, according to news reports.
A May 26 article in AsiaNews.it described the gang-rape of a Christian woman and the desecration of Christian tombs in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad. The publication called it "ordinary violence visited upon Pakistan's Christian minority."
The Pakistan Christian Post first reported the violence, including information about Muslim landowners using tractors to desecrate a Christian graveyard. Buried caskets were broken and bones of the dead were brought to the surface, the newspaper reported.
A Faisalabad chapter of the National Commission for Justice and Peace of the Pakistani Catholic Church has intervened in the cases, which sent a team to the site to collect evidence.
A Muslim man has filed a claim with the courts in the case, saying that the land where the cemetery is located belongs to him.
The Rev. Joseph Jamil condemned the violence and told AsiaNews.it that the Pakistani government should "take charge of the situation and defend the minority."
The article said the rape victim is a 29-year-old Christian woman and the mother of three. The Catholic group is helping with her legal counsel.