Christian Congregation Attacked

By Molly Moore and Kamran Khan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, October 29, 2001; Page A06


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 28 -- Gunmen burst into a Roman Catholic church in eastern Pakistan during services this morning and sprayed the congregation with bullets, killing at least 16 people, including the clergyman and several children, according to police and church officials.

The assault in Bahawalpur -- headquarters for Jaish-e Mohammad, one of the extremist Islamic groups the United States has listed as a terrorist organization -- was the most vicious incident in the worst day of unrest and violence in Pakistan since the U.S.-led bombing of Afghanistan began three weeks ago.

"The method used and the inhuman tactics clearly indicate involvement of trained terrorists," Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, said in a statement. "I would . . . like to assure everyone that we will track down the culprits and bring them to justice."

Elsewhere today, a bomb hidden under a seat in a bus killed three passengers and injured 25 in the southwestern city of Quetta, near the Afghan border. Protesters who have blocked Pakistan's main highway into China commandeered an airport they feared might be used by U.S. forces in raids against Afghanistan. And the government signaled growing alarm over thousands of armed men and boys who have gathered in northwestern tribal regions, preparing to join Taliban forces in Afghanistan.

No one claimed responsibility for the church attack or the bus explosion.

Today's events fueled an increasing sense of insecurity across Pakistan. The government ordered extra police and security personnel into Christian neighborhoods across the mainly Muslim country after intelligence reports indicated Christians would be targeted for terrorist attacks. An additional 3,000 frontier troops were placed on standby near the highway and airport protest sites near the town of Gilgit.

The unrest and anxiety pose the greatest challenge yet to Musharraf's efforts to keep extremist religious elements and public protests under control in the face of mounting anger over U.S. bombardments of Afghanistan and nearly daily incidents of Afghan civilians being killed by misguided bombs.

Pakistan's extremist religious groups have organized dozens of demonstrations in the past several weeks protesting Musharraf's decision to assist the United States in hunting down accused terrorist Osama bin Laden and attacking the Taliban movement that protects him.

Musharraf made an unusual and unannounced prime-time appearance on national television to condemn the attack on St. Dominic's church in Bahawalpur, 300 miles south of Islamabad, the capital. The city is home to extremist Islamic leader Maulana Masood Azhar, founder of the Jaish-e Mohammad organization. Although Pakistan's Christians, who make up about 3 percent of the population, are occasionally subject to harassment, acts of violence have been rare.

Six men on three motorcycles roared up to St. Dominic's church after the start of 9 a.m. services, yanked assault rifles out of bags and opened fire on church guards, killing one of them.

Yelling "Graveyard of Christians -- Pakistan and Afghanistan!" and "This is just a start," they charged toward the doors of the imposing white building, witnesses told news agencies. Four of the men ran into the church shouting "Allah-u-Akbar" -- "God is Great" -- while two others stood guard outside, the witnesses said.

Some worshipers dove under pews while others attempted to flee the hail of bullets, survivors said.


• Understanding Pakistan A look at the country and its role in the war on terrorism.
"Some of them lay down, some begged for mercy," Ali Shah told the Associated Press, saying he was in the front pew when the four masked gunmen opened fire. "They didn't listen."

"They had no mercy," Shamoon Masih, 34, who was shot in the arm and leg, told the news service. "They could see that small children were being hit by bullets, but they kept firing."

The clergyman who was conducting the service was reportedly killed by the gunfire, which lasted about two minutes before the gunmen fled. The bodies of dead worshipers lay in pools of blood on the church floor, witnesses said.

Although St. Dominic's is a Roman Catholic church, witnesses said it was being used at the time of the attack for a Protestant service by worshipers who had no church of their own.

"This is terrorism related to Afghanistan," said Sharif Azhar, a member of the church's organizing committee. He said police had been told about the growing number of threatening telephone calls and letters directed against the Christian community in recent days.

In Quetta, a bomb exploded on a bus as it was driving through a military barracks, indicating the attackers intended to strike out at the government, local law enforcement officials said. Two of the three passengers killed were military personnel, officials said.

Quetta, capital of Pakistan's Baluchistan province, has been rocked by numerous bombings and other terrorist attacks in recent years. Although few culprits have been apprehended, police have blamed sympathizers of the Northern Alliance opposition group fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan for many of the assaults. Quetta is in the Pashtun tribal belt of Pakistan, and much of its populace supports the Taliban, which is dominated by Pashtuns.

Several thousand men and boys armed with weapons ranging from assault rifles to century-old muskets and axes have gathered near the small town of Lagharay, about four miles from the Afghan border in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, and are threatening to march into Afghanistan to join the Taliban.

They planned to cross the border today, but the group's organizer and Islamic party chief, Sufi Mohammad, ordered them to wait. He said he had received a message from Taliban leader Mohammad Omar that extra soldiers were not yet needed.

Some of Mohammad's supporters have blocked traffic for days on Pakistan's Karakorum Highway -- part of the historic Silk Road -- leading into China. Today, the group took over the small Chilas airport near the town of Gilgit, purportedly to prevent its use by U.S. forces to support attacks in Afghanistan.

In the northwestern city of Peshawar, hundreds of friends and relatives gathered to mourn Afghan opposition leader Abdul Haq, who was captured and executed by the Taliban on Friday after a failed mission into Afghanistan to rally support for the overthrow of the Taliban.

Although relatives had traveled to Afghanistan on Saturday to retrieve his body, the Taliban refused to surrender the corpse, instead ordering it buried in Abdul Haq's home village near where he was captured.



© 2001 The Washington Post Company