Several Christian families in a village of Sahiwal are on the run after allegations that they committed ‘blasphemy’ by throwing ink on the Holy Quran, the  Daily Times of Pakistan reports.

Some neutral locals of the area  said that 12 Christian families had left their houses in Chak 190/9-AL – a village of Christians with at least 6,500 voters – and taken shelter at an unidentified place over the last seven days, in a bid to save their lives.

A week ago, unidentified people broke into Harrappa Government Community Model Girls Primary School in the village. In the morning, students found on the ground a page of the Holy Quran smeared with black ink and gum. The blackboard had the following words written on it: “I am don”.

Locals and  police said  the words on the blackboard led to the assumption that a Christian named Shani was responsible for what had happened, as he was also called ‘don’. “It could have been a conspiracy against Shani,” they said.

Mosques in the area made announcements saying “it is matter of respect of Islam and all of them should rise and crush the vice”.

On Thursday, a large number of Christians and Muslims protested at the arrival of Shahbaz Sharif in Sahiwal, demanding the arrest of Shani. Later the charged mob started shouting slogans against Shani and tried to torch his house and those of his friends and relatives who had already fled the area. However, police intervened and stopped the mob.

On Friday, a mob from a neighbouring village tried to burn the houses of the accused, but some influential people stopped them.

Harrapa SHO Allah Ditta told Daily Times that with help from influential people of the area, he had convinced people that it was not a case of blasphemy. He said he had told them that if somebody had dropped some pages of the holy Quran during a robbery in the dark, it did not imply that blasphemy had been committed. He said that above all, it was not clear who had broken into the school. He said that a case had not been registered yet. The sources said that Ashfaq Gill, Nasir, Imran Qasai and Raju – all friends and relatives of Shani – are in police custody, but police denied that.

United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) –  has put Pakistan on ‘Watch List’ saying  it is a country of particular concern (CPC)

AUS  government-funded agency, USCRIRF, monitors the status of freedom of thought, conscience and religion across the world.

In its annual report released on Friday, the Commision termed Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam as amongst the worst violators of religious freedoms.

It said these countries either discriminate against people for religious reasons or are unwilling or unable to stop religious violence by their citizens.

According to the report, in Pakistan Year 2009 has seen the largely unchecked growth in the power and reach of religiously motivated extremist groups, said the report, referring to the Taliban in the NWFP. Sectarian and religiously motivated violence continues, particularly against the Shias, Ahmadis, Christians, and Hindus, and the government’s response continues to be insufficient.

Quoting Pakistani and international observers,. the report says elements of Pakistan’s intelligence services maintain ties with and provide support to the Taliban and other violent extremist groups, such as the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.

Many madrassas in Pakistan, the US report notes provide ideological training and motivation to those who take part in violence targeting religious minorities in Pakistan and abroad. Most of these madrassas were registered in mid-2005. This, however, had little if any effect on the content of the schools‘ curricula, and there are still no government controls on the madrassas’ sources of funding.

Ahmadis, Christians, and Hindus also have been targeted in attacks by Sunni extremists and in mob violence conducted with apparent impunity.