Pastor Javed Bhatti was awakened from his slumber by the sound of the mosque's loudspeaker - not the usual Muslim cry of prayer, but the roar of thunder in protest against the blasphemous act of Christians. governor.
Instinctively, he gathered his family and ran into the street, where other Christians were flocking from their homes into narrow alleys.
"Some ran barefoot and others fled in rickshaws. It was chaos everywhere," he told AFP on Thursday, a day after hundreds of Muslim men ransacked the road. streets, burning houses, and churches.
"The kids shouted, 'Run, run, the clerics are coming! They're going to attack us,'" his sister Naila Bhatti added. Blasphemy is a hot issue in Pakistan, where vigilante mobs have killed people accused of insulting Islam or the Prophet Muhammad.
Christians make up about 2% of the population and occupy one of the lowest rungs of Pakistani society. More than 5,000 people live in the Christian neighborhood of Jaranwala, most of them medical workers on meager wages, living in cramped homes with up to 18 relatives.
As panic spread across the neighborhood, Muslims also flocked to the streets to warn and shelter their neighbors.
Pastor Bhatti said: “The crowd came from outside (this area), but the local Muslims helped and tried to save us. Tariq Rasool, who lives on the same narrow street as Bhatti, said Muslims quickly stick Koranic verses on the doors of Christian homes in the hope that they will avoid violence.
"Two women were running. I opened the door for them and let them in. They were very worried but I comforted them," the 58-year-old Muslim man told AFP.
The crowd grew larger and angry throughout the day, with hundreds rioting at its peak in the streets. As night fell, at least four churches, dozens of homes, and shops were burned and ransacked, according to an AFP team at the scene.
Imran Qadri, a Muslim with a beard, opened the door to two Christian women.
"They were still in our house. My family helped them, provided them with food and they spent the night with us," said Qadri, standing next to Bhatti.
Parveen Bibi ran away with eight family members after being awakened by the children's screams:
“Muslims are coming to burn our house!
“We take rickshaws to our Muslim neighbors. The door opened and we all walked in. I was accompanied by a woman, my two daughters-in-law, and my children. The women said, 'You're safe here, don't worry,'" she explained in tears as she stood amid the rubble of the house.
Some Christians who returned to their homes on Thursday to see the damage told AFP more than 300 people fled in the early hours of the riots, but hundreds more evacuated overnight and Thursday to stay at relatives' homes in other cities.
Police have arrested more than 100 people believed to be involved in the violence and are searching for two Christian brothers accused of blaspheming the Koran. Although the crowd has dispersed and hundreds of police officers are guarding the area, many are still too scared to go home.
For Pastor Bhatti, the return brought even more pain to his family:
"My own home was destroyed. It was our lifetime income. How are we going to live here now?"
