Pakistan police guard Christian area after mob attack over 'blasphemy'

Pakistan police guard Christian area after mob attack over 'blasphemy'

Pakistan police guard a Christian neighbourhood in Jaranwala after hundreds of people fled a Muslim mob that rampaged through the streets on Wednesday over alleged blasphemy.

Christians, who make up around two percent of the population, occupy one of the lowest rungs in Pakistani society and are frequently targeted with spurious blasphemy allegations.

Blasphemy is an incendiary charge in deeply conservative, Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even unproven allegations of insulting Islam and its Prophet Mohammed can provoke death at the hands of vigilantes.