LAHORE: A Muslim cleric is among a dozen people being investigated for using mosque loudspeakers to order protests against alleged blasphemy which erupted into mob violence in Pakistan earlier this week, a senior police official said.

More than 80 Christian homes and 19 churches were vandalised when hundreds rampaged through a Christian neighbourhood in Jaranwala in Faisalabad, Punjab on Wednesday.

Reports were broadcast from mosques, with one cleric telling his followers it was “Better to die if you don’t care about Islam”.

“That cleric should have understood that when you gather people in such a charged environment … in a country in which people were already very sensitive it is like adding fuel to fire,” Punjab police chief Usman Anwar told AFP during an interview in Lahore on Friday.

“He’s not saying that go and burn their houses. But when the mob gathers, it’s really impossible to control that.”

He said the cleric was one of 12 people who were being investigated for using mosque loudspeakers, while more than 125 people have been arrested linked to the vandalism that followed, thanks to the use of facial recognition technology, mobile phone geo-fencing and data gathered from social media.

At its peak, more than 5,000 people had poured into the neighbourhood from other districts, with smaller mobs spreading to narrow alleys where they ransacked homes.

Christians who fled in their hundreds have criticised police for failing to protect their property, with some sheltered by their Muslim neighbours.

“If police had started baton charging, or attacking (the mob) or tear gassing that would have resulted in multiple injuries or deaths. And that is what we were avoiding at that time. That would have aggravated the situation that would have spread in all the country,” Anwar said.

Negotiations with religious leaders led to calls for calm, he added.

Thousands of churches guarded

Two Christian brothers have been arrested for alleged blasphemy.

Anwar said he personally interrogated the pair to avoid the possibility of accusations of torture.

On Friday, 3,200 churches were guarded by police across Punjab province to provide reassurance to the Christian community, Anwar said, adding that he would travel to Jaranwala Sunday to show solidarity.

Anwar said that while the anger towards blasphemy may be justified, the violent reactions were not, describing the scenes in Jaranwala as “tragic”.

He said it was the role of clerics and the government to ensure that religion was not misused.

“The most important thing is that we, the Muslims, in this country, are going to become more tolerant. Once we are given the true message of Islam, that is the role of the government,” he said.