Targeted Christians found shelter with Muslims during Pakistan rampage

Pastor Javed Bhatti was roused from his sleep by the mosque's loudspeaker -- not the usual Islamic call to prayer, but a thundering call to protest against alleged blasphemy by Christians.

Instinctively, he gathered his family and ran to the street, where fellow Christians were already spilling from their homes into narrow alleyways.

"Some were running barefoot and some fled in rickshaws. There was chaos everywhere," he told AFP on Thursday, a day after hundreds of Muslim men rampaged through the streets, burning homes and churches.

"The children were shouting, 'Run, run, the clerics are coming! They will attack us'," his sister Naila Bhatti added.

Christians make up around two percent of the population and occupy one of the lowest rungs in Pakistani society. More than 5,000 live in the Christian quarter in Jaranwala, most of them sanitary workers on meagre wages who occupy cramped homes shared by up to 18 relatives.

As panic spread across the neighbourhood, Muslims also rushed to the streets to warn and shelter their neighbours.

"The crowd came from outside (this area), but the local Muslims here helped us and tried to save us," Pastor Bhatti said.

Tariq Rasool, in the same narrow street as Bhatti, said Muslims had quickly pinned holy Quranic verses on the doors of Christian homes in the hope they would be spared the violence.

"Two women were running. I opened the door of my house for them and let them inside. They were very worried but I consoled them," the 58-year-old Muslim told AFP.

The mob swelled in size and anger throughout the day, with hundreds at its peak rioting through the streets.

By nightfall, at least four churches and a dozen houses and shops had been burned and ransacked, according to an AFP team at the scene.

For Pastor Bhatti, returning has brought more pain for his family: "My own house was destroyed. This was our entire life's earnings. Now how will we live here again?"