(CRUX. Nirmala Carvalho).
MUMBAI – A May 25 attack on Christians in north-central Pakistan by an enraged Muslim mob, accusing a Christian man of having defaced the Quran, represents a “dark day” for the country’s Christian community, Pakistan’s top Catholic official has said. “I strongly condemn this incident. It’s a dark day for the Church in Pakistan,” Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad, president of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops Conference, told Crux in the aftermath of the attack. “Without knowing or investigating [the accusation regarding the Quran], the mob attacked a 74-year-old Christian man,” Shukardin said. “Christians are very disappointed and afraid.” Although many observers have long complained that such violent episodes are encouraged by Pakistan’s controversial anti-blasphemy laws, Shukardin said the Church is not calling for those laws to be repealed but rather for good judgment in how they’re applied.