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Pakistani Christians
Say Muslims Not Behind Church Massacre
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Oct 31 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Christian community in Pakistan is struggling to come to terms with the massacre of 17 people, refusing to believe that it might have been committed by their Muslim brothers, news agencies reported.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack on Saint Dominic's church in Bahawalpur, when unknown gunmen burst into the church and began spraying the congregation with gunfire.
A Muslim guard and 16 worshippers were killed in the worst act of violence against Christians in Pakistan's history.
Police rounded up some 22 suspects Tuesday in efforts to trace those behind the church carnage, the Pakistani daily
Dawn reported. No charges have been filed.
The crackdown was launched after a warning by the Punjab governor to the local administration for the early arrest of the culprits, the daily reported.
It has been learned that the suspects belong to two sectarian outfits, but police officials declined to give any information in this regard.
Police suspect the attack was carried out by hard-liners amid rising tensions over Pakistan's support for the U.S.-led attacks on neighboring Afghanistan's Taliban regime, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
In the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, Christian leaders say they have no problems with their Muslim neighbors.
"Here with the Muslims, we live like brothers and sisters," said prayer minister Joseph Lal, of St. John's Cathedral in Peshawar.
He refused to believe Pakistanis could have carried out the attack.
Instead, he maintained "external hands" or "anti-Pakistani elements" were behind the atrocity - such as Pakistan's bitter rival, India.
After the massacre, Islamabad tightened security measures around churches and a dozen men from the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary, armed with weapons and truncheons, have been standing guard at the Anglican cathedral here - located not far from a mosque in the center of the city.
The cathedral's pastor, Rashid Nazir, also spoke warmly of relations in the city and dismissed the notion that Pakistanis were behind the killings.
"Relations with Muslims are very brotherly," he said, adding, "I think that the RAW [Research and Analysis Wing] Indian agency is involved," although there have been no suggestion of the intelligence agency's complicity.
This point-blank refusal to believe that Muslims were behind the unprecedented act, however, betrays a fear among the Christian community to do or say anything that could whip up anger among Islamic radicals, already incensed by almost four weeks of U.S. strikes on Afghanistan.
Their insistent support for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf also reveals the insecurity of the minority group, which feels the authorities are their only bulwark against sectarian violence.
"Christians are given security by the government," said Nazir. "The government is very helpful, we have freedom of worship, freedom of evangelism," his deputy added, saying he did not feel threatened.
Just a few steps away in the St. John school, there were no apparent signs of trouble. Seventy percent of the pupils are Muslims and the remaining 20% are Christians and members of other faiths, said deputy head Raheel Sherazer.
Many of the Christian schools in Peshawar are very popular because of their high standards of education, and many well-off Muslim families send their children to them, AFP said.
In another Christian school, St. John Vianney High School, located in the old part of the city, the pattern is the same with 60% of the pupils being Muslim and the other 40% being Christian. Six men from the Frontier Constabulary have been guarding the school as a precaution, said principal Alvin Gill.
Mahmud Ahmed Ghazi, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Haj, said Monday that terrorists have no religion and the killers of Christian worshippers are not Muslims. While talking to newsmen at Bahawalpur, some 85 kilometers from here, Ghazi said that Islam is the religion of love, sympathy, tolerance and brotherhood, Pakistani daily
The Frontier Post reported Wednesday.
Islam guarantees protection of life, property and honor to the minorities living in a Muslim country.
Ghazi said the government condemns the inhuman massacre at the church and that the terrorists involved are not Muslims.
Colonel S.K. Tressler, Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs, said that massacre of worshippers is an act of terrorism and an outrage against the whole nation.
Christians are Pakistan's largest religious minority, comprising 1.5% of the of the country population of 140 million.
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