[The News (Pak)] Former minister Sherry Rehman has slammed the torching of a church in Sambrial, Sialkot over an alleged desecration of the Holy Quran last week."The Sambrial incident is a cause of concern as we have another case where a crowd takes law into its hands on the basis of an unconfirmed incident, which, even if it had taken place, could have been addressed without resorting to violence," said Sherry Rehman. She said the state moved in its law and order apparatus on time to avert violence. She said attack on religious symbols and places of worship was a condemnable act but there was no reason to allow charged sentiments to turn into violence and create a law and order situation.
"We have a number of cases involving allegations of blasphemy on minority communities, where violence erupted on the basis of false rumours and unconfirmed reports of desecration of the Holy Quran. The Gojra attack last month followed a similar pattern and the tragic part of the incident is that the local communities ceded space to a terrorist group.