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.
On Thursday, Mr. Imran accused Mr. Masih, 28, of blasphemy, sending a shiver of apprehension through the Christian population. People began to leave their homes that evening, and on Friday, the police prepared charges against Mr. Masih.
On Saturday morning, several thousand people, including ethnic Pashtuns who worked in nearby factories, set upon the colony. Some were armed with batons and pistols, the police said.
“They vandalized Christians’ houses, desecrated churches and opened fire on the police,” according to a police spokesman, Multan Khan. Several policemen were hurt as they tried to intervene.
Others who rushed to the Joseph Colony, which is in an industrial area home to scrap yards and factories, tried to extinguish the fires.
By evening, about 178 houses, 18 shops and 2 churches had been damaged by fire, said Ahmad Raza, who was leading the rescue operation.
The one-room house that Jani Masih, another sanitation worker, shared with his three sons was among the homes destroyed. “Even a single household has not been spared,” said Mr. Masih, whose name is common among Christians.
The devastation was a testament to the intolerance sweeping across Pakistani society.
The Peshawar bombing occurred in Meena Bazaar, a shopping area, as worshipers were finishing afternoon prayers, said the deputy city commissioner, Javed Marwat.
Among the dead was the chief cleric of the mosque, which belongs to the Barelvi sect of Islam, practiced by most Pakistani Sunni Muslims.
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