US State Department called on the authorities in Pakistan seeking efforts to restore calm after a charged mob of around 7,000 people stormed a Christian colony in the Jaranwala Tehsil of Faisalabad district on Wednesday morning.

“So we are deeply concerned that churches and homes were targeted in response to reported Quran desecration in Pakistan. We support peaceful freedom of expression and the right to freedom of religion and belief for everybody. And as we have previously said, we are always concerned about incidents of religiously motivated violence,” US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said at the state briefing.