Church leaders react to Pakistan Islamist militant attack on Christians
The suicide bombing in a park in Lahore, Pakistan on Easter Sunday has taken the lives of 70 people, at least 29 of which were children. The Jamaat-ur-Ahrar faction of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility and said that Christians were their target.
Leaders of the Christian community have condemned the attack.
Pope Francis called the act "a vile and senseless crime" and prayed to God to "stop the hands of the violent ones who sow terror and death."
He said, "I appeal to civil authorities and all sectors of that nation to make every effort to restore security and serenity to the population, and in particular to the most vulnerable religious minorities."
According to the BBC, 1.6 percent of the Pakistani population is Christian. It is the second largest group of minorities in the country following Hindus, while majority of the people are Muslims. Prior to the partition, 15 percent of the population was part of the minority group, but this has declined to only 4 percent. Christians are mostly found in Karachi, Punjab, Lahore adn Faisalabad.
And while Christians and Muslims co-existed without major confrontations before, BBC says that mob violence often broke out due to accusations of blasphemy. A recent one was in 2010 when a Christian woman was sentenced to death due to alleged blasphemy but Punjab governor Salman Taseer supported her. Because of this, Taseer was murdered by his own bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri, whose execution in February resulted to protests by the Muslim community. In recent years, there have been high profile outbreaks, such as the burning of churches and Christian schools in Faisalabad in 2005, the suicide bombing of a church in Peshawar in 2013, and two bomb explosions in churches in Lahore in 2015.
The bombing of the amusement park in Lahore on Easter Sunday, according to Reuters, was the fifth one done by the militant group since December, which declared its allegiance to the Islamic State.
"The perversity of evil knows no bounds. It sinks to a new low of hatred in deliberately targeting women and children celebrating their Easter Day in peace," said Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster, as quoted by The Guardian. "This despicable act, aimed at Christians, is utterly contemptible and condemned just as we fervently pray for those who have died and been wounded."
The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said in a tweet: "We pray for the victims of Lahore to the crucified God who brings hope in despair, whose love is with the victims, who promises justice"
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RT, however, reported that the sympathy given by politicians, celebrities, and the online community in general, to those in Lahore was lacking compared to the outpouring of support during the Paris and Brussels attacks.
RT, however, reported that the sympathy given by politicians, celebrities, and the online community in general, to those in Lahore was lacking compared to the outpouring of support during the Paris and Brussels attacks.
