Pakistan Christians fear more persecution following church attack By Farhan Bokhari in Lahore Pakistani Christians mourn beside the coffins of relatives, that were killed in two suicide bomb attacks on a Church in Peshawar on September 22, 2013. A twin suicide bombing killed more than 70 people at a church service in northwest Pakistan on September 22 in what is believed to be the deadliest attack on Christians in the country©AFP Symbols of Christianity are scattered around Lahore, a legacy of British missionary zeal in Pakistan’s second-biggest city. But this coda to colonial times was jerked into a more violent present at the weekend, with the murder of at least 78 churchgoers in a Taliban suicide attack in the northern city of Peshawar. For Pakistan’s tiny Christian minority, which represents about 2 per cent of the predominantly Muslim population of 190m, its religion means access to schools such as St Anthony’s, which provide a stepping stone to top universities in the UK and US for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. But the community, like other legacy groups sprinkled across the world, feels its days are numbered. Sajan Masih – whose name means follower of the Messiah, or Christian – is among those who laments “the dying future for Christians in Pakistan”. Sitting cross-legged on a pavement across the road from the “Zamzama” or Kim’s Gun in central Lahore, Mr Masih points out the Christian schools and churches, as well as the cannon that features in Rudyard Kipling’s writings on life in colonial India. For the municipal caretaker and father of seven, Sunday’s Taliban suicide attack, which, in addition to the deaths, injured more than 100 shortly after the main weekly mass, marks a continuation of persecution and a tale that will soon be forgotten. “No one cares about Christians in Pakistan,” he shrugs. Yet the latest violence has shocked many Pakistanis who remember life before the upsurge in Islamist militancy. Sunday’s attack came just two weeks after Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister, presided over a gathering of leaders of the country’s main political parties in the presence of General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, the army chief, to discuss his government’s policies on countering the militants. The event ended with a controversial announcement giving a green light for Mr Sharif’s regime to open fresh peace talks with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the main umbrella organisation representing the Taliban. Since that announcement, the killing of Major General Sanaullah Niazi, a senior army commander, in a Taliban bomb, and Sunday’s attack in Peshawar, have delivered a clear message from the Taliban – that they want to continue the fight. The situation has revived bitter memories of previous bloody attacks by the Taliban and aligned groups on members of the Shia Muslim community, Pakistan’s second-largest grouping after the majority Sunni Muslims. Western diplomats say part of the Taliban’s determination to intensify the fight is driven by a growing confidence ahead of the planned withdrawal of US-led western troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year. “In Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Taliban believe, they are increasingly set to win the fight. Why should they stop [the fight] now,” said one western diplomat in Islamabad. “These people [Taliban] are now increasingly looking at victory.” "Irrespective of where the Taliban negotiations will go, the question for me is simply, who will end the persecution of Christians in Pakistan?" - Samuel Masih, a Christian priest in Lahore Some critics say that Mr Sharif’s peace initiative is doomed to fail, while others warn he risks a dangerous resurgence in militancy if he closes the door on negotiations. “You can’t close any one option. In this kind of conflict involving a guerrilla type of warfare, winning the battle is not easy,” says Masood Sharif Khattak, former head of Pakistan’s intelligence bureau, the main civilian counter intelligence agency. Yet drawing a line under the conflict is about more than a peace settlement with the Taliban, analysts say. There are also controversial laws such as prosecutions for blasphemy against Islam, which in August 2012 resulted in the arrest of a Christian teenage girl. She was later released after the judge found that the evidence against her had been fabricated. But her family subsequently sought asylum in Canada, fearing that they would be attacked in Pakistan. In March this year, hundreds of Christian residents fled their homes in one of the poorer districts of Lahore following a mass attack by Muslim zealots seeking revenge over another blasphemy case. “The law of blasphemy has often been used in Pakistan to target Christians,” said Samuel Masih, a Christian priest in Lahore. “Irrespective of where the Taliban negotiations will go, the question for me is simply, who will end the persecution of Christians in Pakistan? The blasphemy law is something that is an example of where changes must be made.” For Mr Masih, the caretaker, Sunday’s attack in Peshawar has once again revived a tragic trend surrounding his community. “Our religion is under attack in a country where Christian missionaries once worked freely. Going to church was safe,” he says. “Now, life has become just too dangerous.” ft/cms/s/0/0b4a4ce6-2432-11e3-8905-00144feab7de.html#axzz2fkMwLvtH
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 19:48:00 +0000
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