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Suicide attack on Pakistani church leaves dozens dead Taliban suicide attack on Pakistani church leaves dozens dead
(about 4 hours later)
A suicide bomb attack on a historic church in north-western Pakistan has killed at least 60 people and wounded more than 120, officials said, in one of the worst assaults on the country's Christian minority in years. Pakistan's embattled Christian community suffered the most deadly attack in its history on Sunday when a pair of Taliban suicide bombers blew themselves up inside a church in the troubled city of Peshawar, killing 75 and wounding more than 100.
The bombing underlines the threat posed by Islamic extremists as the government seeks a peace deal with domestic Taliban militants. The midday attack on the historic church was also one of the most lethal aimed at civilians in Peshawar, a city that has been repeatedly struck by militant groups who control swaths of the nearby tribal areas.
It occurred as worshippers were coming out of the church service in Peshawar city to get a free meal of rice offered on the front lawn, said a top government administrator, Sahibzada Anees. Explosions ripped through the congregation of around 500 people, including many women and children, as the service at All Saints church was coming to an end and worshippers were about to receive a free meal of rice in the courtyard outside.
"There were blasts and there was hell for all of us," said Nazir John, who was at the church with at least 400 other worshippers. "When I got my senses back, I found nothing but smoke, dust, blood and screaming people. I saw severed body parts and blood all around." Witnesses said the interior of the 130-year-old building was turned into a bloodbath, with severed limbs scattered around and the walls pockmarked with ball bearings used as shrapnel by the bombers.
Survivors wailed and hugged each other in the wake of the blasts. The white walls of the All Saints church were pockmarked with holes probably caused by ball bearings or other metal objects contained in the bombs to cause maximum damage. Blood stained the floor and was splashed on the walls. Plates of rice were scattered across the ground. "I saw myself in the air and then on the ground inside a huge fire of ball," said Sabir John, a worshipper who lost one of his arms in the blast.
The attack was carried out by a pair of suicide bombers, said the police officer Shafqat Malik. Authorities found their body parts and were trying to determine their age, he said. An official from the provincial bomb squad said there was evidence of two suicide bombers, each carrying around 6kg of explosives.
The number of casualties from the blasts was so high that the hospital was running out of caskets for the dead and beds for the wounded, said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, a former information minister for the surrounding Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, who was on the scene. With a limited number of weekend staff, the city's main hospital was overwhelmed by casualties. There were fears that some would die of their injuries as they lay unattended on stretchers outside the emergency ward.
"What have we done wrong to these people?" asked one of the wounded, John Tariq, referring to the attackers. "Why are we being killed?" Dr Arshid Javaid, chief executive of the Lady Reading hospital, said: "I have never seen such piles of human bodies. The exact number of the blast victims cannot be ascertained as yet."
The dead included several women and children, said Sher Ali Khan, a doctor at a hospital in Peshawar where the victims were being treated. Distraught relatives were blocked from entering the hospital to look for family members by police.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion is likely to fall on one of the country's many Islamic militant groups. Islamic militants have been blamed for previous attacks on the Muslim country's Christian minority, as well as Muslim groups they consider heretics. Some previous suicide bombings have been followed up with attacks on victims after they have been rushed to hospital.
Islamic militants have carried out dozens of attacks across the country since Nawaz Sharif became prime minister in June, even though he has made clear that he believes a peace deal with the largest group, the Taliban, is the best way to tamp down violence in the country. Christians in Peshawar reacted with fury. Protesters outside the church chanted slogans attacking the provincial government for not providing security to worshippers. Some clashed with police, ripping off their uniforms and burning them in front of television cameras.
Pakistan's major political parties endorsed Sharif's call for negotiations earlier this month. But the Taliban have said the government must release militant prisoners and begin pulling troops out of the north-west tribal region that serves as their sanctuary before they will begin talks. Christians also came out to protest in major cities around the country.
The Jundullah wing of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility. A spokesman said: "They are the enemies of Islam, therefore we target them. We will continue our attacks on non-Muslims on Pakistani land."
The highly unusual attack on Christian worshippers was reminiscent of a series of brutal bombings against large gatherings of Shias, a minority Muslim sect reviled as heretics by some militant groups.
Until now Pakistan's Christian minority, thought to be about 2% of the population of nearly 200 million, have been spared such attacks, although five people were killed by a grenade attack in 2002 on a church in Islamabad frequented by foreigners.
Christians, who tend to be drawn from among the poorest sections of society, have instead suffered from prejudice and sporadic bouts of mob violence and church burnings, usually triggered by accusations of anti-Islam blasphemy.
Sunday's attack is likely to be seen as yet another sign of the growing threat from Pakistan's fast-evolving network of militant groups, which include sectarian terrorists, anti-India groups and a homegrown strain of the Taliban influenced by al-Qaida ideology.
It could further undermine forlorn hopes of a negotiated peace settlement with militants.
An agreement struck earlier in September by leading political parties gave the green light to the government to hold talks with militants, but it did not lead to any reduction in attacks.
Counter-terror analysts believe the peace initiative is doomed to fail because the violent fundamentalists ravaging the country reject Pakistan's government and constitution as un-Islamic.
On Sunday three days of mourning were announced as politicians and religious leaders condemned the attack.
"Terrorists have no religion and targeting innocent people is against the teachings of Islam and all religions," said the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, in a statement.
"Cruel acts of terrorism reflect the brutality and inhumane mindset of the terrorists."
Imran Khan, the politician whose party leads the provincial government in Peshawar, rushed to the city from the capital, Islamabad. Talking to journalists outside the hospital he said the attack was a deliberate scheme to scupper peace talks.
"Isn't it strange that whenever peace talks are pursued, these attacks take place, and I want to point out that there was also a drone strike today," he said in reference to a strike by an unmanned US aircraft which killed six suspected militants in North Waziristan on Sunday.
Khan has long blamed the CIA's drone campaign as the root cause of Pakistan's current unrest, a position decried by his critics who say militancy and extremism long pre-date drones and the US-led intervention in Afghanistan.
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