Religious minorities in Pakistan faced yet another act of vandalism by a violent mob in Jaranwala, Faisalabad division of Punjab province. On August 16, 2023, an angry mob of youth set fire to more than 17 churches and 80 houses. The miscreants, as usual, relied on accusations of blasphemy against the Christian community of Jaranwala. The riot was met with widespread criticism and disapproval from the media and wider society in Pakistan. This study is designed to explore and analyze how selected elite newspapers of Pakistan portrayed this act of vandalism against the Christian community. Banking on priming theory, we used qualitative and quantitative content analysis to determine which aspects of the incident the newspapers primed. Our findings show that all the selected newspapers; daily the Dawn, daily The Express Tribune and daily The News International have criticized and condemned the incident in their editorials. All newspapers have highlighted the abuse of blasphemy law by tyrants and hate mongers for their own vested interests. Newspapers have highlighted the failure of lawmakers and law enforcement agencies in the country.

Index Terms- Jaranwala Incident, Violence Against Christians, Religious Minorities, Blasphemy Law, Priming Theory, Content Analysis