PAKISTAN: Peshawar residents condemn a suicide bombing outside an Anglican church that killed 78 Christians

Record ID: 353967

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Peshawar residents condemn a suicide bombing outside an Anglican church that killed 78 Christians
  • Date: 23rd September 2013
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) RESIDENT GHULAM GHAUS SAYING: "Whether it was done to Muslims, or Christians, or to (followers of) any other religion, this is barbarity. We are Muslims, but we have been trying to help them as much as we can. We are digging their graves with them." POLICEMAN IN MARKET POLICEMAN STANDING ON A SHOP ROOF
  • Embargoed: 8th October 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: Crime,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2VJN1F8HB5KPQA0IT6VR87GLE
  • Story Text: Residents of Peshawar on Monday (September 23) condemned the suicide bombing that killed 78 Christians at a chuch in the city on Sunday (September 22).
    A pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up outside a 130-year-old Anglican church in Pakistan after Sunday (September 22) mass, in the deadliest attack in recent history on Christians in the predominantly Muslim country.
    All markets and educational institutions in Pakistan were closed for a three-day mourning period announced by the government.
    Policemen in Peshawar also put up barriers across roads and thoroughfares, where protests by angry residents, Christians and Muslims, were expected later on Monday.
    The explosions on Sunday struck the historic white-stone All Saints Church in the city of Peshawar, near the frontier tribal areas where Islamist militants have their strongholds, as hundreds of parishioners, many of them women and children, streamed out of the building.
    More than 100 people were wounded, authorities said.
    Danish Dholak, an injured churchgoer described the blast.
    "Some people had prepared a cauldron of rice and were busy in distributing the rice. Others were greeting one another. Around 10 to 15 minutes after the service was over, there was a blast," he said.
    Faheem Masih, sitting with his injured brother, said he had lost two family members in the blasts.
    "There was total chaos after the blasts occurred. This brother of mine, my mother and an uncle's son were hit. My mother and uncle's son were killed. This brother was injured. My younger sister is in Surgical C with two broken legs. Another cousin is also injured," Masih said.
    Islamist violence has been on the rise in Pakistan in past months, undermining Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's efforts to tame the insurgency by launching peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban.
    The Taliban-linked militant group TTP Jundullah claimed responsibility within hours of the attack, saying they would continue attacks on non-Muslims on Pakistani land.
    Christians make up about 4 percent of Pakistan's population of 180 million, and tend to keep a low profile in a country where Sunni Muslim militants frequently bomb targets they see as heretical, including Christians and Sufi and Shi'ite Muslims.
    Attacks on Christian areas occur sporadically around the country but Sunday's assault, in a densely populated Christian residential area in the old walled city in Peshawar, was the most violent in recent history.
    A Muslim resident of Peshawar condemned the attack, and said that many had rushed to help dig graves for a mass burial held after midnight.
    "Whether it was done to Muslims, or Christians, or to (followers of) any other religion, this is barbarity. We are Muslims, but we have been trying to help them as much as we can. We are digging their graves with them," said Ghulam Ghaus.
    An assault of such scale and audacity could be a turning point for Sharif after months of inconclusive efforts to engage the Pakistani Taliban in talks, offering him a cue to give in to the tougher approach backed by the military.
    The army, which keeps thousands of troops in the tribal belt, an area where insurgents are based, opposes talks with the Pakistani Taliban, saying previous attempts to bring the militants to the negotiating table yielded no results.
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