Christians protest church attack
PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN: The death toll from a double suicide bombing on a church in Pakistan rose to 81 yesterday, as Christians protested across the country to demand better protection for their community.
The attack on the All Saints church in the northwestern city of Peshawar after a service on Sunday, claimed by a Taliban faction, is believed to be the deadliest ever to target Pakistan’s small Christian minority.
Doctor Arshad Javed of the city’s main Lady Reading Hospital said the death toll had risen to 81, including 37 women. A total of 131 people were wounded.
Christians demonstrated in towns and cities around Pakistan, including Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Faisalabad, to protest against the violence and demand better protection from the authorities.
In Islamabad more than 600 protesters blocked a major city highway for several hours during the morning rush hour.
Paul Bhatti, the president of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance who was minister for national harmony in the last government, said the attack was the deadliest ever targeting Christians in Pakistan.
‘‘We are very clear that it was an incident of terrorism. Christians are not the only target of terror, whole Pakistan is a victim of terrorism,’’ said Mr Bhatti, whose brother Shahbaz was assassinated in 2011 for speaking out against the country’s blasphemy laws.
‘‘Terrorists are targeting everyone, they are beasts. The time has come for Pakistan to take action against them.’’
He added Christian schools would close for three days of mourning.
Senior Peshawar police official Najeebur-Rehman said security around churches in the city would be stepped up, but survivors of the bombing spoke of their fears of further violence.
‘‘We had very good relations with the Muslims — there was no tension before that blast, but we fear that this is the beginning of a wave of violence against the Christians,’’ Danish Yunas, a Christian driver wounded in the blast, said.
‘‘We fear there will be more of this in the future.’’
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the ‘‘cruel’’ attack, saying it violated the tenets of Islam and Pope Francis also spoke out against the violence, calling it ‘‘a bad choice of hatred and war’’.
The small and largely impoverished Christian community suffers discrimination in the overwhelmingly Muslimmajority nation but bombings against them are extremely rare.
The 400 or so worshippers were exchanging greetings after the service when the bombers struck, littering the church with blood, body parts and pages from the Bible.
The walls were pockmarked with ball bearings that had been packed into the bombs to cause maximum carnage in the busy church.
Sectarian violence between majority Sunni and minority Shi’ite Muslims is on the rise in Pakistan but Sunday’s bombings will fuel fears the already beleaguered Christian community could be increasingly targeted.
A faction of Pakistan’s umbrella Taliban movement, Junood ul-Hifsa, claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack, saying it was to avenge US drone strikes on Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives in the country’s tribal areas along the Afghan border.
‘‘We carried out the suicide bombings at Peshawar church and will continue to strike foreigners and non-Muslims until drone attacks stop,’’ Ahmad Marwat, a spokesman for the group, said.
Only around 2% of the country’s population of 180 million are Christian.