Church Prayer Meeting Attacked in Pakistan

On 20th March in Islamabad, the Citizen’s Peace Committee and an NGO condemned last week’s attack on a church in the Miskeen Musharraf Colony. A call has now been made to the government to safeguard the rights of the minority religions in the country.

Sarwar Bari, coordinator of Patten Development Organisation said, "It is an open terrorist activity in which an Imam of a mosque along with his students attacked people as they were praying in a church."

He added that he could not understand why the Imam, if he had an objection to the church, did not go directly to the police. Bari expressed that no-one has the right to solve their problems on their own through violence and terror, and that this practice had to be halted immediately.

Concerns for Christians have deepened since the attack, as it is thought that the attack in Pakistan’s capital may be a signal for further attacks throughout the country.

Dawn – Pakistan’s most widely circulated newspaper reported that Bali said, "Everyone has the right to freedom and the right to spend their lives according to their will and religion."

On 16th March, Abida Shaikh of the All Pakistan Alliance for Katchi Abadis reported that the Imam of the Oswais Qarni Mosque, along with his students attacked more than 65 Christian worshippers that were in the church after a prayer meeting.

It is thought that the cause of the violence was that the church had recently been built near to the Mosque, and although the distance between the church and mosque is 100m, the Imam has been known to have strongly opposed to the construction of the church.

It has also been reported that in the surrounding areas of the church and mosque only eight out of the seventy-five families are Muslim, and that all of these have stated that they have had no objections to the construction of the new church building.

The church has now been sealed after the vicious attack, and the chairman of the All Pakistan Alliance for Katchi Abadis, Bashir Buttar said, "When I reached the spot and protested against the incident, the police picked me up along with another person, Mian Qasim, and put us behind bars for one day."

Since then Buttar has been let out on bail after being granted eight days remand by the office of Assistant Commissioner. However, the church attack and persecution of Christians in Pakistan’s capital have raised an increased awareness and concern towards the region.