Rev Fayaz Adman lost 27 family members in a suicide attack in Peshawar in September 2013. Speaking to Christian Today following Easter Sunday's attack in Lahore, he stressed the importance of praying for the terrorists targetting believers in Pakistan.
Adman, who is priest-in-charge of West Bolton, UK, was born in Peshawar and was baptised, confirmed and ordained in All Saints Church, where a double suicide attack killed more than 120 people in 2013. He lost 27 members of his family in the incident and was inspired, with his wife, to start Project Umeed (Project Hope) in response. The initiative set out to bring restoration to those suffering physically, spiritually and emotionally as a result of the attack.
Set up in November 2013, the project was located just 18 yards away from All Saints Church, Adman told Christian Today.
"When we went back in June, to see the impact of the work, most of the victims were walking on their own feet which gave me comfort and peace", he added.
"Most of the children who were injured were healed and most were back in school. Women had been trained to start up small businesses at home and those who were the heads of the family were back in work."
Almost two and a half years after what Adman described as "the first attack in history on Christians in Pakistan with such a massive loss", however, the country faced yet another devastating massacre. On March 27, Easter Sunday, Lahore was attacked by suicide bombers claiming 73 lives, many of them women and children. A spokesman for the group that claimed responsibility for the blasts, the Taliban-affiliated Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, said: "The target was Christians."
"These are my Christian brothers and sisters," Adman said of the victims. "This is just another episode of the persecution, after Peshawar. They [the terrorists] can't stop, and they will continue."
Because Christianity is seen as the enemy by hardline Islamists, Adnam said, believers will continue to be targetted. However, he is passionate about encouraging Pakistani Christians to remain hopeful in the face of persecution and tragedy.
His strategy against the growing persecution of Christians in Pakistan and other parts of the Islamic world is simple – prayer.
"We need to pray for those who control these innocent people" who are manipulated into committing suicide attacks, he said.
"Each and every Muslim is not a terrorist, but could easily be manipulated into being one."
This is due to a number of reasons, he continued.
"There is poverty in Pakistan and because of low levels of education, those in positions of power pick out innocent people to use and abuse, turning them into suicide bombers. When these controlling hands use these innocents, they pay a good amount to their family members. That is the key."
Vulnerable individuals are coerced into performing suicide attacks with promises that "their family would support their decision, they would know their family would have a happy, wealthy life, and the individual would be rewarded in paradise," Adnam said.
He said it is vital that the Qur'an is "translated into modern times, otherwise people will still face these problems and these terrorist attacks, as currently they are using the Holy Qur'an for jihad."
Alongside prayer for those controlling the "innocent" people manipulated into becoming terrorists, Adman said he hoped that Christians in Pakistan could have "proper training on how to handle these kinds of incidents and how to help traumatised people".
"The basic, or prime responsibility, for the Christian leadership in Pakistan is to stand up and demand in a decent way to change the discriminatory laws and the translation of the Holy Scriptures in the modern time, or they will continue to face these problems and discrimination," he said.
