Bombs target Pakistani church

ISIS claims suicide attack that killed 9 people, injured 57

QUETTA, Pakistan — At least nine people were killed and more than 50 others wounded when two suicide bombers struck a church in Pakistan on Sunday, authorities said, in the first attack on a church claimed by the country’s Islamic State militant group affiliate.

One attacker detonated an explosives-laden vest at an entrance to the church’s main hall. A second attacker’s vest failed to detonate and he was killed by security forces, according to police and government officials.

Nearly 400 worshippers were gathered inside Bethel Memorial Methodist Church for early morning prayers. Photos from the scene showed debris and pools of blood near the pulpit.

Baluchistan Police Chief Moazzam Ansari praised the response of security forces guarding the church, saying

the attacker who made it inside was wounded and unable to reach the main building.

“Otherwise the loss of lives could have been much higher,” he told reporters.

Quetta Police Chief Abdur Razzaq Cheema said a search was underway for two suspected accomplices who escaped.

Local television showed ambulances and security patrols racing to the scene as women and children were being led out of the church’s main gate.

Speaking by telephone from Quetta, eyewitness Salim Masih said he was in the church’s main hall when the attack began.

“I was in the middle [of the church] when suddenly we heard shots being fired and people crying outside the hall,” said Masih. “Then everyone was trying to escape. Suddenly a huge explosion occurred outside the hall that broke windowpanes.

“I didn’t see the attackers because I was trying to save my kids. I kept them in my arms,” he said.

The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility for the attack on their Aamaq news agency, saying two “plungers” from their group had stormed the church, without providing further details.

It was the first time the Islamic State group has claimed an attack on a church in Pakistan, though Muslim extremists have claimed church attacks in the past. The deadliest example was in September 2013, when twin suicide bomb blasts killed 85 people in a Peshawar church. In March 2015, two suicide bombers attacked two churches in the eastern city of Lahore, killing 15 people.

Fifty-seven people were wounded in the latest attack, including seven who were listed in critical condition, according to Wasim Baig, a spokesman for Quetta’s main hospital.

Christians make up around 2 percent of Pakistan’s population. Sunday’s attack raises urgent questions about their safety, and that of other religious minority groups, going into a season of festive gatherings.

“Law enforcement agencies have badly failed in protecting common citizens, and minorities in particular,” said Shamaun Alfred Gill, a Christian political and social activist based in Islamabad.

“December is a month of Christian religious rituals,” Gill said. “We had demanded the government beef up security for churches all over the country. But they have failed to do so.”

A young girl in a white dress sobbed as she recounted the attack to Geo television, saying many people around her were wounded.

Aqil Anjum, who was shot in his right arm, said he heard a blast in the middle of the service, followed by heavy gunfire.

“It was chaos. Bullets were hitting people inside the closed hall,” he said.

Witnesses told local news outlets that people, panicked and frightened, had rushed out after hearing a loud explosion, followed by the sound of gunfire outside.

As security forces moved inside the main hall after the attack, they were confronted by a scene of bloody destruction. Several benches and chairs were overturned. Musical instruments were turned upside down.

A Christmas tree with decorative lights stood at one corner, and a pool of blood lay outside the door where the suicide bomber had detonated explosives.

Pakistani officials have been pointing to success in reducing violence in Baluchistan, a sparsely populated and rugged province bordering

Afghanistan and Iran. But Sunday’s bombing was one of a string of brazen attacks in the province’s biggest city.

“The army repeatedly claims that it has broken the backbone of terrorism in the country,” Gill said. “But terrorism is still very much present and destroying the lives of common people.”

An insurgency by Baluch separatists has long simmered in the province, and the Taliban and other militants maintain a presence in the region.

Some officials were quick to shift blame toward Afghanistan, pointing to the presence of havens there for militants.

“The terrorists have safe sanctuaries across the border in Afghanistan,” said Anwar-ul Haq Kakar, a spokesman for the Baluchistan government. “They have become a major source of terrorism inside Baluchistan.”

Many minority leaders, however, stressed that there was a bigger need to look inward

to ensure security for religious minorities, especially Christians.

Dozens of Christians gathered outside a nearby hospital to protest the lack of security.

“This attack is a serious breach of security,” Gill said.

Baluchistan Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti said that quick police action averted a much worse attack on Sunday.

“God forbid, if the terrorists could have succeeded in their plans, more than 400 precious lives would have been at stake,” Bugti said on Twitter.

Bugti was joined by Pakistan’s prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and Army chief Qamar Bajwa in condemning the attack and calling for religious tolerance.