ICC Note:
Following a series of deadly suicide attacks across Pakistan, terrorists linked to the Taliban have warned Christians that they will not be targeted as long as they do not cooperate with the Pakistani government. The warning has many Christian leaders concerned. In recent years, Christians and their places of worship have been targeted by the Pakistani Taliban seeking to send a message. In 2016, Christians celebrating Easter at a park in Lahore were attacked by a suicide bomber. In 2015, in the weeks leading up to Easter, two churches in a predominately Christian neighborhood in Lahore were bombed. Will 2017 be similar? 
02/17/2017 Pakistan (Asia News) – The Islamic group linked to the Taliban that carried out the attack in front of the Punjab Assembly in Lahore that left 14 dead has issued a warning against Pakistan’s churches and minority places of worship saying that they will not be touched if they keep their distance from government institutions.
Saeeda Deep, founder of the Institute of Peace and Secular Studies, expressed concern to Asia News about the security of minority religious places.
“Churches and similar buildings are soft targets compared to highly secured government buildings,” she said. “The terrorists know they will have public support for attacking religious minorities. The most important thing is that they are only trained to kill and simply find a justification,” she said.
In a video, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, which claimed responsibility for the attack against the pharmacists protest, warned that, “Churches, (Hindu) temples, gurdawaras (Sikh temples) and all the religious places of non-Muslims are not included in our targets until and unless these places are used by our enemies,” namely the Pakistani government and military responsible for 2007 operation that killed radical leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi at the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), besieged for days by the army.
In a video the group announced the launch of “Operation Ghazi” against all those who “promote themselves as the contenders of Nabuwat (prophethood) and those people who are involved in the blasphemy regarding the prophet.” The reference here is to Ahmadis, a Muslim community deemed heretical.
For Archbishop Joseph Coutts, head of the Catholic Church in Pakistan, it is hard to understand the Taliban. “It depends on what they think, how they in interpret the enemy and link things. They are very slippery like a snake in the grass.”
“They can make anything out of a visiting army officer in a church or a police guard on duty during Sunday. It is a different kind of guerrilla warfare and we have to learn to protect ourselves.”
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