BY  :  Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter 

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court issued a 10-year prison sentence Monday for a Muslim crane driver connected to the anti-Christian riots that roiled the country’s largest province in 2023.

Irfan Yousaf was slapped with the steep sentence by the court in Pakistan’s Faisalabad district for attacking a Christian neighborhood in August 2023 amid false allegations that two Christian brothers had desecrated a Quran, according to EWTN.

The false accusations of blasphemy, which potentially carried a life sentence, triggered thousands of violent Islamic rioters, who vandalized 26 churches and about 90 Christian homes in Jaranwala, where most of the roughly 5,000 Christians are impoverished and live in cramped, squalid conditions.

Authorities later determined the two accused Christian men had been framed amid a personal dispute, and they were acquitted by an anti-terrorism court in 2024.

On Tuesday, the court found that Yousaf was guilty of desecration and arson when he used his crane to demolish the Salvation Army Church, the Peace Mission Church and the Pak Khushkhabri Church in Jaranwala on Aug. 16, 2023, according to UCA News.

Citing a lack of evidence, Judge Waseem Mubarik acquitted 12 other people who were accused of being involved in the incident. Mubarik reportedly reprimanded law enforcement for neglecting to call for backup during the incident and for mishandling evidence in the case. He also ordered them to find and arrest up to 150 remaining unidentified suspects.

EWTN reports that when the verdict against Yousaf was reached, applause broke out among a consultation organized by the nongovernmental Implementation Minority Rights Forum (IMRF) and the National Council of Churches in Pakistan (NCCP), which represents Protestant churches in the country.

Samuel Pyara, who serves as chairman of IMRF, told the Catholic outlet that Yousaf’s conviction was made possible by a video that had been recorded by a Christian woman.”It followed forensic analysis of a video recorded by Wahida Mukhtar, a local Christian woman, showing Yousaf demolishing a church and an adjacent house with a crane. Government-certified experts authenticated the footage and testified before the court,” Pyara said.

Pyara also noted that Christians who testified in the trial were subjected to intimidation tactics.

“One complainant, a brick kiln worker, was suddenly pressured by his employer to repay outstanding loans. A farmer’s ready-to-harvest radish crop was poisoned. Others were denied agricultural land by Muslim landlords, young Christians lost their jobs, and an internet cable provider saw his business collapse,” he said.

Violence against Christians is ongoing in Pakistan, where more than two dozen Christian families were reportedly forced to flee their homes last month after blasphemy allegations against a pastor living in the United States triggered fears of mob violence.

Pakistan was listed eighth this year on Open Doors’ World Watch List 2026, which ranked the top 50 countries where persecution against Christians is most extreme. The persecution watchdog notes that the country’s 4.8 million Christians make up less than 2% of its population, and that a single accusation of violating the country’s draconian blasphemy law “can provoke mob violence against victims, as well as their family and the wider Christian community.”

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