LAHORE, Aug 31: Finally some timely intervention by police and a couple of lawmakers on Friday helped avoid potentially a serious clash between groups of Christians and Muslims in the LDA Quarters on Walton Road over the celebrations following a conversion of a man to Islam.

A PML-N member of Punjab Assembly from the area said the man was a Hindu before his conversion.

Tension had gripped the Christians in the area when some Muslims fired in the air and chanted slogans to celebrate the conversion almost a week ago. To add to the fears of the non-Muslim residents of the area, the celebrating crowd regularly made rounds of some Walton Road streets in a procession. This went on for many days. The Christians who make up a sizeable chunk of the population in the area were scared, yet the issue brewed unnoticed by the administration for many days.

“The odd celebrations by armed men that continued for a week sent a wave of panic among the Christian community whose members were confined to their homes out of fear,” a local resident Aslam Masih Gill told Dawn.

He said a man identified as a worker of the PML-N was mainly responsible for provoking the peaceful Muslims against Christians. The LDA Quarters on Walton Road house more than 1,000 families a large number of them are Christian.

Fearing serious threats by some local Muslims, the Christians on Friday brought the matter to the knowledge of area MPA Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin Sohal. They also submitted a complaint to the police for the provision of security to them as well as for legal action against the ‘miscreants’ involved in creating a law and order situation.

Consequently, Cantonment SP Maroof Safdar Wahla held negotiations with the two sides and convinced them to hold talks.

He suspended from service Factory Area Sub-Inspector Mustafa who paid frequent visits to the area but allegedly played no role to defuse tension.

“It was an extremely hostile situation after some elements fanned religious hatred to settle their personal scores,” Maroof Safdar Wahla told Dawn while giving his version of the incident.

He said a gunman of a DIG ranked police officer and a local resident who was identified as Bhatti and claimed to be a worker of the PML-N were the main suspects behind the unrest among the two communities. “We have alerted both sides by delivering them a loud and clear warning,” he said.

He said the two sides had reached an agreement that in future if anybody from either community was found involved in fanning religious hatred, a strict legal action would be taken without discrimination.

SP Wahla said Senator Kamran Michael and PML-N MPA Yasin Sohal played an important role towards finding a solution to the problem.

Another meeting has been scheduled within next two days in which senior leadership of Muslim and Christian communities will participate.

PML-N PMA Yasin Sohal said that on the administrative side, efforts to ensure permanent peace were under way by involving senior police officials.