Yule terror
ISIS bombers hit Pakistan church, killing 9
NINE PEOPLE were killed and more than 50 were wounded Sunday when two suicide bombers struck a church in Pakistan holding services ahead of Christmas.
ISIS quickly took credit for the blast, making it the first time the terror cell has claimed to bomb a church in Pakistan.
The two assailants got into a scuffle with security forces guarding the Methodist church in Quetta, where 400 people were attending services.
One attacker set off a suicide vest at the main entrance of the Bethel Memorial Methodist Church, The Washington Post reported. A second man was killed in a hail of gunfire after the explosives strapped to his body didn’t detonate.
Moazzam Ansari, Baluchistan Province police chief, said the second killer was stopped before he could make it into the church’s main building.
“Otherwise the loss of lives could have been much higher,” Ansari said.
At least two women were among those killed, according to The New York Times. An additional 10 women and children were among those wounded.
Abdur Razzaq Cheema, Quetta police chief, said authorities are looking for another two suspects.
Photos showed distraught congregants rushing people out of the church. Debris was spewed throughout the church. A Christmas tree set up next to the pulpit was still standing after the blast.
Fifty-seven people were hospitalized in Quetta, with seven in critical condition, hospital spokesman Wasim Baig said.
Aqil Anjum was in the church when the explosion and gunfire erupted amid the service.
“It was chaos,” Anjum said. “Bullets were hitting people inside the closed hall.”
Salim Masih, by phone with said churchgoers escape amid the speaking The Post, rushed to sounds of gunshots and crying.
“Suddenly a huge explosion occurred outside the hall that broke windowpanes,” he told the newspaper. “I didn’t see the attackers because I was trying to save my kids. I kept them in my arms.”
Christians make up roughly 2%, or about 4 million, of Pakistan’s 198 million citizens.
Christian activist Shamaun Alfred Gill, based in the capital city Islamabad, accused the government of not protecting minority groups.
“December is a month of Christian religious rituals,” Gill told The Times. “We had demanded the government beef up security for churches all over the country. But they have failed to do so.”
While this is the first ISISclaimed attack on a Pakistani church, other extremist groups have targeted the houses of worship. A double suicide blast on a Peshawar church killed 85 people in September 2013.
In March 2015, 15 people were killed at two churches in Lahore when suicide bombers struck them.