15 killed in attacks on 2 Pak churches

15 killed in attacks on 2 Pak churches

FPJ BureauUpdated: Saturday, June 01, 2019, 03:19 AM IST
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Lahore :  At least 15 people were killed and over 80 others injured when Taliban suicide bom-bers attacked two packed churches during the Sunday mass in Pakistan’s biggest Christian colony here, sparking mob fury in which two suspected militants were burned to death.

In one of the worst attacks on the minority community in recent times, the two bombers blew themselves up at the gates of the Roman Catholic Church and the Christ Church in Youhanabad area of Lahore, the capital of Punjab province. The blast led to a stampede as panicked worshippers ran to save their lives.

In the aftermath of the attacks, an enraged crowd lynched two people suspected of being accomplices in the bombings, one of whom was wrenched from police custody. Local news outlets reported that the mob set their dead bodies on fire.

The crowd also prevented the police from entering the church premises as angry protests spread across the city. Demonstrations were also reported in Karachi and other cities.

Religious minorities, including Shiites, Christians and Ahmadi Muslims, have been under violent attack for years in Pakistan. At least 85 people were killed in an attack on All Saints Church in Peshawar in September 2013.

There have also been sporadic attacks on Christians in Punjab, often triggered by accusations of blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad. But Pakistan has been particularly on edge in recent months since a Taliban attack on a Peashwar school that killed at least 150 people, most of them children.

The usual Sunday mass was underway at the churches when the two suicide bombers reached there and tried to break in. “When the guards stopped them from entering the premises, they blew themselves up (at the gates),” a local Christian leader told PTI.

The attacks were claimed by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan’s splinter group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar. The same group had claimed the responsibility of a suicide attack on the Wagah border in September last year in which 60 people were killed.

Tahir Bhatti, an eyewitness said, “I was present in the service in the Catholic Church when there was a loud noise and I fell on the ground. When I regained consciousness, I rushed outside and found several people lying in a pool of blood and dismembered limbs scattered all around.”

The Lahore police have registered two separate cases — one against the attacks on the two churches and the other against the people involved in the killing of the two ‘suspects’. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attack and called it a cowardly act. PTI

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