From The New York Times
By DECLAN WALSH and WAQAR GILLANI
Published: March 9, 2013
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An enraged Muslim crowd attacked a Christian neighborhood in Lahore on Saturday, setting fire to more than 150 houses and 2 churches, in a new display of religious intolerance as Pakistan reels from violent persecution against other minorities.
In Peshawar on Saturday, a bomb exploded in a mosque, killing at least 4 people and wounding 28, the police said.
In Lahore, several thousand people attacked the Joseph Colony, a Christian neighborhood of about 200 homes, after a report that a Christian sanitation worker had blasphemed the Prophet Muhammad.
Blasphemy has acquired a hair-trigger sensitivity across Pakistan in recent years, with an alarming increase in mob violence.
The claims of blasphemy in Lahore, the police said, stemmed from an argument on Wednesday evening between two friends: Sawan Masih, the sanitation worker, and Shahid Imran, a Muslim barber.
