Pakistan: In the midst of an increasing trend of attacks on religious minorities nationwide, a prominent minority rights organization has denounced the vandalism of a church in Punjab province, Pakistan, where a Bible was desecrated and a cross was broken. The group describes the act as a conscious attempt to degrade the Christian community.

Tak Memorial Church in the Punjabi village of Preme Nagar in the Lahore district was vandalized on Sunday, according to the Voice of Pakistan Minority (VOPM), which described the incident as an intentional message to Christians that “you are not safe, even in your place of prayer” rather than as “mischief.”

This assault wasn’t limited to wood and masonry. It was an attack on the most fundamental guarantee that a state has to its people: the freedom to practice their religion without fear. Every time a house of worship is violated, it damages more than just one community; it undermines the notion that people of various faiths can coexist peacefully. Additionally, it sends a terrifying message that a minority’s sanctity is disposable when their holy text is desecrated, according to VOPM.

The rights organization claims that community members and local authorities denounced the vandalism as a breach of religious tolerance, peace, and respect.

Even when an occurrence is labeled as “isolated,” it is part of a nationwide reality in which religious minorities have often been subjected to violence, intimidation, and collective punishment; these events may be brought on by accusations of blasphemy, mob hysteria, or extremist propaganda. An assault on a church under such situation is more than just vandalism. The VOPM emphasized the crimes against minorities across Pakistan, saying, “It is part of a pattern that forces minority communities to live as if normal life can be interrupted at any moment — by a rumor, by a threat, by a crowd, or by one person with hate in his hands.”

The rights organization urged Pakistani authorities to determine if the assailant had handlers, support, or ideological backing and to pursue the matter openly and not covertly, stating that justice cannot be symbolic. It also called for responsibility for anybody who incites religious hate on the street or online, as well as security for churches and minority neighborhoods before the next outcry.