PESHAWAR: Angry Pakistani Christians on Monday denounced the deadliest attack ever in this country against members of their faith as the death toll from the church bombings the day before climbed to 85.
A pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up amid hundreds of worshippers outside a historic church in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday. The attack on the All Saints Church in the city of Peshawar, which also wounded over 140 people, occurred as worshippers were leaving after service to get a free meal of rice offered on the front lawn.
A wing of the Pakistani Taleban quickly claimed responsibility for the bombings, saying they would continue to target non-Muslims until the US stops drone attacks in the remote tribal region of Pakistan.
The bombings raised new questions about the Pakistani government’s push to strike a peace deal with the militants to end a decade-long insurgency that has killed thousands of people.
“What dialogue are we talking about? Peace with those who are killing innocent people,” asked the head of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, Paul Bhatti, whose brother, a federal minister, was gunned down by an extremist in 2011.
“They don’t want dialogue,” said Bhatti. “They don’t want peace.”
The death toll on Monday climbed to 85, after seven more of the wounded in Peshawar died overnight and Monday, according to the commissioner of Peshawar, Sahibzada Anees.
“Our state and our intelligence agencies are so weak that anybody can kill anyone anytime. It is a shame,” said Bhatti.
Angry Christians blocked roads around the country to protest the bombings. On one of the main roads coming into the capital of Islamabad, demonstrators burned tires and demanded government protection for the members of the Christian minority.
“Our people have been killed ... Nobody seems to bother about us. No one apprehended the killers,” said Aqeel Masih, one of the protesters. He added that he fears Pakistanis will simply forget about the bloodshed in a few days.
In the southern port city of Karachi, a few hundred demonstrators chanted “Stop killing Christians!” and demanded that those who attacked their community be held accountable.
“We want an end to extremism, terrorism and barbarianism in Pakistan,” said Bashir John, a priest.
Missionary schools around the country would be closed for three days, said Christian leader Nasir Gill. He said 68 bodies of Peshawar victims were buried Sunday and the rest would be buried today.
Churches and other places important to the Christian community in Peshawar have been given extra security, said police official Noor Khan.
But this has not been sufficient to appease angry Christians in Pakistan, who want the government to take even stronger steps to protect them.
Many churches, as well as mosques and other religious institutions, already receive some type of police protection although many Christians say that is too little. A police officer who was supposed to be protecting the church where the suicide bombers attacked was killed.
Christians are a minority in Pakistan, where roughly 96 percent of the country’s 180 million people is Muslim.
Also Monday, a bomb exploded near a police patrol in southwestern Baluchistan province, killing four people, including three policemen, said police officer Abdullah Khan. The bombing occurred in Pashin district, some 70 km north of the provincial capital, Quetta, said Khan.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. Baluchistan is home to both militants and nationalists who have been fighting an insurgency against the government for decades for a greater share of the province’s natural resources.
Facing heat, Christians take to Pakistan streets
Facing heat, Christians take to Pakistan streets
Cooper says Ethiopia visit to focus on migration
- We are working together to tackle the economic drivers of illegal migration and the criminal gangs who operate globally, profiting from trading in people
LONDON: Britain’s foreign secretary said she would use a visit to Ethiopia to focus on measures to stem the rising number of migrants from the Horn of Africa seeking to reach the UK.
Yvette Cooper said job creation partnerships would dissuade people from leaving Ethiopia, while stronger law enforcement cooperation was essential to counter smuggler gangs and speed up returns of migrants with no right to stay in Britain.
“We are working together to tackle the economic drivers of illegal migration and the criminal gangs who operate globally, profiting from trading in people,” Cooper said in a statement.
“That includes new partnerships to improve trade and create thousands of good jobs in Ethiopia so people can find a better life back home instead of making perilous journeys.”
Successive British governments have sought to address illegal immigration, an issue that has helped propel the populist campaigner Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party into a commanding lead in opinion polls.
Approximately 30 percent of people crossing the English Channel in small boats over the past two years were nationals from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Sudan, the British Foreign Ministry said.
To boost job creation in Ethiopia, Cooper is set to sign an agreement with the country to advance two energy transmission projects led by Gridworks, a UK investment organization.
She planned to announce £17 million worth of funding for tackling violence against women and girls, assistance for 68,000 children suffering malnutrition, and for projects working with displaced people.
Meanwhile, Tigrayans in northern Ethiopia fear a return to all-out war amid reports that clashes were continuing between local and federal forces on Monday, barely three years after the last devastating conflict in the region.
The civil war of 2020-2022 between the Ethiopian government and Tigray forces killed more than 600,000 people and a peace deal known as the Pretoria Agreement has never fully resolved the tensions.
Fighting broke out again last week in a disputed area of western Tigray called Tselemt and the Afar region to the east of Tigray.
