Umar Saleem is still traumatized by the abuses and torture he endured in police custody after he and his brother were accused of defaming Islam, which sparked a Muslim mob attack on Christians in eastern Pakistan last year.
“I tried to commit suicide during the interrogations,” Saleem, 28, a member of Full Gospel Assembly Church, told UCA News on June 3.
Saleem and his family have been living in a shelter house in Punjab province since the religiously charged riot in Jaranwala left at least 80 Christian houses and several churches looted, vandalized and burned to the ground on Aug. 16.
Jaranwala is a Christian-majority neighborhood of mostly sanitary workers, masons, and daily wage earners. The attack displaced hundreds of Christian families like Saleem’s, who fled their homes to escape violence at the hands of the rioting mob.
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