Patrick Goodenough, CNSNews.com
Monday October 29, 2001

They believe gunmen who attacked a church service Sunday acted out of vengeance for the military campaign being waged by the United States in neighboring Afghanistan.

"This affair has terrorized the whole Christian community and we now live in fear," a Pakistan Christian publication said Monday.

At least 17 worshippers, including a pastor and four children, were killed when three men armed with Kalashnikov semi-automatic rifles opened fire in a church in the southeastern city of Bahawalpur on Sunday morning.

The bearded men then fled on motorcycles, according to police and eyewitnesses. One report cited witnesses as saying one of the gunmen had shouted: "Graveyard of Christians - Pakistan and Afghanistan."

Also among the dead was a Muslim police officer, appointed to guard the St. Dominic's Church from the threat of Islamic militancy.

The church is Roman Catholic, but it was being used by a small Protestant Church of Pakistan congregation when the attack occurred. The Church of Pakistan is a denomination comprised of Methodists, Scottish Presbyterians and Anglicans. Christians make up less than 2% of Pakistan's 142 million population.

Military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf denounced the outrage, vowing to track down the perpetrators and bring them to justice. The methods used by the gunmen pointed to "trained terrorist organizations," he added.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Pakistan is home to a range of militant Islamic organizations, some involved in the separatist struggle against Indian rule in Kashmir. Many militants are sympathetic toward the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, the twin targets of the U.S.-led air strikes in Afghanistan.

Earlier, three Muslim parties backed an Islamic ruling declaring a jihad against America and opposing Musharraf's decision to cooperate with the U.S. in its anti-terror campaign.

Following the attack, three groups representing Christian minorities urged the government to provide their communities with better protection. Authorities in the country's four provinces stepped up security at Christian institutions.

Fatwa

Fears about Christians' safety have been mounting in recent weeks, fueled by the growing tensions within the country over developments in Afghanistan.

A number of isolated incidents were reported around the country.

Students at a Christian university in Peshawar were assaulted by militants who ordered them to leave the country. Members of five Christian families in Rawalpindi were assaulted by anti U.S-protestors, and a church in Lahore was set on fire and the minister beaten by the arsonists.

The Pakistan Christian Voice publication recently carried reports citing Muslim leaders as issuing a fatwa (religious edict) on October 7 saying two Pakistani Christians would be killed for every Muslim killed by air strikes in Afghanistan.

Pakistan Christian Congress (PCC) president Nazir Bhatti said Monday, the Bahawalpur killing could be seen in light of the fatwa, which he said had been repeated at Friday prayers in mosques across the country for the past several weeks.

Bhatti said the killings were "an indication that Muslim radical groups are now [a] clear threat to [the] integrity and solidarity of Pakistan and planning to face the armed forces of Pakistan and to establish 'Taliban-like' government in Pakistan," according to a statement from the PCC.

He called on Christian youths to set up their own security systems, to guard lives and property day and night.

Bhatti also called on ordinary Muslims in Pakistan to uphold the duty enshrined in the Pakistan constitution to protect minorities as a "sacred trust."

Earlier this month, leaders of religious minorities - including Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Ahmadis and others - met with Musharraf for a two-hour meeting during which they were assured of protection.

The Pakistan Christian Voice said in response to the church killings that the entire Christian community was living in fear.

"But, the people will try to remain peaceful and to pray at this time."

Recalling that Jesus had told his disciples during a raging storm, "Have courage, don't be afraid, I am with you," it added: "He is with us in this storm. The Christians in Pakistan live in hope. The Lord is with us and we will rise to new life."

Blasphemy laws

Although Sunday's attack was unprecedented in its brutality, groups concerned about religious freedoms have long voiced concern about the plight of Christians in Pakistan.

A small number have been victims of notorious blasphemy laws, which Amnesty International says have been "consistently used to harass, intimidate and detain" minorities, while members of the criminal justice system tend to accept the accusations of blasphemy against Islam, the Koran or Mohammed uncritically.

India's tiny Christian community - which has also been targeted by Hindu hardliners - reacted with shock to news of Sunday's attack, which it linked to the war in Afghanistan.

The All India Christian Council and the All India Catholic Union in a joint statement called on Musharraf to protect minorities in Pakistan, charging that Christians there had in recent years been "targeted by religious bigots as well as by the government's infamous blasphemy laws."

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in a report to Secretary of State Colin Powell last August, it was seriously considering whether Pakistan and India should be added to the short list of those designated "countries of particular concern" because of abuses of religious freedoms.

Countries currently in that category are Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, and Sudan, and the unrecognized Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

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