"Everything's been destroyed, look," said Kala Jee Allah Ditta, a municipal worker with four children, pointing to the charred remains of his three-roomed home.
Around Allah Ditta, an angry crowd gathered, pointing to similar damage wrought on other homes.
The community said police, anticipating trouble, had asked them to evacuate their homes on Friday night. "The station house officer of the local area told us to leave," said Chand Masih, another resident. The attackers arrived the next day and set fire to homes.
Families sat in the open, surveying the damage and consoling each other. "Just because of one person's wrongdoing, they have punished the entire community," said one man. "Just look at what they've done! Why is the government not protecting us?"
The conflict's roots are said to lie in a quarrel between friends, Mohammed Imran, a local Muslim barber, and Sahwan Masih, a 28-year-old Christian municipal cleaner, who lived across the road. They were close, by all accounts. "They would sit together, drink together," said Chand Masih.
Earlier in the week, when they were sitting outside Imran's barber shop, a fight broke out between them. Residents claim sharp words were exchanged about each other's faiths. By Friday, Imran and another friend had told local Muslims about the dispute.
The colony sits next to Lahore's steel mills, and the quarrel coincided with local elections for the steel workers' union. According to residents, the candidates decided to make the alleged blasphemy a campaign issue.
A crowd - estimated to be more than 3000 strong - gathered after Friday prayers, apparently urged on by a local religious leader. The next day, the attackers returned to torch the colony.
Community leaders have accused the authorities of doing nothing and insist they must be protected.
A spokesman for the provincial government, Pervaiz Rasheed, said those suspected of involvement in the attacks "would be tried in anti-terrorist courts". He said up to 150 people had been detained.
-Independent
