Christians in Pakistan must not lose hope in the face of ongoing persecution, the Catholic Archbishop of Lahore has said, following Sunday's suicide bombing in a city park that killed 72 people.
Speaking to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Archbishop Sebastian Shaw said: "To my own faithful I said that they must not give up hope because, even though we were going through a period of grave difficulties, we have to learn to rise up again, just as Christ was able to raise himself again, despite carrying the Cross."
The Archbishop added that he visited every injured person from Sunday's attack in hospital. Up to 340 are believed to have been wounded.
"It was truly difficult because I saw so many children, [aged] only four or five, both Christians and Muslims, who had been wounded or killed by this terrible attack," he said.
"After the attacks last year on two Christian churches in Yohannabad, we were fearful that there might be another attack, and for this reason the government had provided all the necessary security measures to protect the churches – but no-one had thought about the park."
Sunday's bombing was the deadliest attack in Pakistan since the massacre of 134 children at a military school in Peshawar in December 2014. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, has claimed responsibility, and a spokesman said the attack was deliberately aimed at people celebrating Easter.
"The target was Christians," he said. "We want to send this message to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that we have entered Lahore."
The majority of those killed were Muslims, however. The bodies of 10 Christians have been identified so far.
