“Pervaiz was sitting on the driver’s seat of the auto-rickshaw, and Tariq and Imran were chatting with him while standing on the left and right side of the auto-rickshaw,” Kinza told ICC as she recounted the details of the incident. “My mother and another cousin of mine were sitting on the back seat of the vehicle. I was about to join my mother when I saw two masked men on a motorbike with guns. They stopped in front of the auto-rickshaw and began shooting at Imran and Tariq. Within no time, they then fired at Perviaz and my mother.”
“I ran into the house with heavy breaths and closed the door from inside,” Kinza continued. “The attackers banged on the door in order to get inside the house; however, thank God, they failed.”
“After a few moments, we rushed outside and saw blood on the street and the dead bodies of our beloveds on the ground,” Kinza described as she began to sob and bury her face into her father’s chest.
ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attack on the Christian family, marking its second major attack on Christians in Quetta. The terrorist group reported that a “covert unit” of its militants “managed to target a number of the combatant Christians.”
“The government has failed in providing security,” Emmanuel Masih, Kinza’s father, said. “We want justice. The officials only arranged the shifting of the bodies of our loved ones to the Lahore airport. They have done nothing beyond that point. The provincial government has announced some solidarity packages for the martyrs’ families; however, these promises have not been fulfilled.”
For Shama, Pervaiz’s widow and a mother of seven children, life has become very difficult. “I had a very sound, happy, and prosperous life with my husband,” Shama told ICC. “However, I do not know what to do in order to keep me and my kids alive. The government should provide shelter, a job, and schooling for my children.”
This is not the first, and likely not the last, time that terrorists will attack Christians in Pakistan. But the trend of attacking during religious celebrations has a particularly devastating effect for the Christian community. Times that were once joyful and cause for celebration have now been perverted into times of tragedy and fear. Pakistan’s government must do more to secure the lives of Christians and their places of worship. If not, more Christian families will become victims of terrorist assaults.
For interviews with William Stark, Regional Manager, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: press@persecution.org