ICC Note:

A recent attack on Christians in Pakistan has one again shined the international spotlight on the suffering of Pakistani Christians. On Easter, Christians gathering at a public park in Lahore were targeted by a suicide bomber attacked to a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban. This is not the first time Christians were attack by terrorists. Only one year ago, the same splinter group attacked two churches in the Christian majority neighborhood of Youhanabad killing over 20. How long until Pakistan takes action and starts protecting its vulnerable Christian community? 

4/4/2016 Pakistan (KCCI Des Moines) – Gunmen carrying AK-47 assault rifles stand guard on a tiny, dusty street, but they’re not protecting a military installation or a prison. They’re armed volunteers guarding a church.

This is the area of Youhanabad on the outskirts of the city of Lahore. It’s the most densely-populated Christian neighborhood in the whole of Pakistan.

Last year, two bombers struck local Catholic and Protestant churches killing more than a dozen people, injuring many more. Protests by the Christian community only led to more violence rather than security.

Death has come to Youhanabad once again.

Pastor Shakeel Anjum, who leads the Children’s Chapel Church, just buried six members of his congregation in one day. They were killed in the bombing of an amusement park in Lahore on Easter Sunday.

A ruthless Taliban splinter group that vows to attack soft targets claimed responsibility for the attack and said that it was targeting Christians. But families from various faith communities were there and more Muslims were killed than Christians.

This year, Anjum says he’s too scared to call his congregation to protest. He was even concerned about more attacks if crowds gathered for a mass funeral. “Our people are very poor, they barely have enough to eat every day — they can’t afford the time to protest these attacks.”

In recent years, Pakistani Christian communities have been regularly targeted with violence.

More than 100 homes were set on fire by outraged Muslims in Badami Bagh, Lahore, in March 2013 after a Christian man was accused of speaking against the Muslim prophet Mohammad.

In September of the same year, 81 people were killed and more than 100 injured in twin explosions outside a church in Peshawar.

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