Victims recall horrors of Quetta church attack

“The cries of the injured still ring in my ears,” says Zeeshan Maseeh, his voice cracking, as he narrates his eyewitness account of Sunday’s horrific suicide attack on Quet- ta’s Bethel Memorial Methodist Church. “I cannot forget the blood-stained clothes of the injured and their cries for help,” he says. Maseeh had been inside the church, attending Sunday Mass, when two terrorists from the militant Islamic State (IS) stormed the compound. As security officials posted to the church opened fire to repulse the attack, one of the terrorists detonated his suicide vest near the church hall’s door. He killed 9 and injured 50 others. The other was shot dead before he could cause more damage. “When the attack happened, there were around 400 people inside,” Balochistan Police Chief Moazzam Jah Ansari tells DawnNews. “Police personnel quickly retaliated and killed one gunman at the church’s gate while another blew himself up inside the church’s compound,” Ansari adds. “The church was jam-packed when we heard the first shots,” recalls Kelvin, a senior photographer working with Urdulanguage newspaper Daily Intikhab. Kelvin was inside the church when the terrorists struck. “Then there was a huge blast as soon as we gathered together,” he says. “After the explosion, there was a large pool of blood in the compound where the injured and the dead lay,” he remembers. CCTV footage of the attack, which circulated widely on social media by evening, shows two armed men throwing off their shawls to reveal guns and explosive vests as they approach the church. They start firing on the church compound, which is located on Quetta’s busy Zarghoon road. A person can be seen bolting the compound’s gate from the inside to thwart the attackers’ entry. Failing to breach the compound’s gate, one attacker jumps over the gate and opens it for his partner. The bullets are flying thick and heavy as policemen posted to the church retaliate. Footage from another camera shows a large explosion and smoke as debris flies out into the church compound.