Four killed in latest church attack

At least four people were killed and 23 wounded in a grenade attack on a missionary hospital outside the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Friday, the second incident against Christians in less than a week. A hospital official told IRIN by telephone from the historic town of Taxila, 25 km northwest of the capital, that one nurse, two nurse assistants and one of the alleged attackers were killed in the attack. The incident comes just four days after six Pakistanis were shot dead in a gun attack on a Christian missionary school northeast of Islamabad. "At 7:45 a.m. people were coming out of the church when two hand grenades were thrown at them," Joseph Lal, administrator of the Taxila Eye Hospital, said. "It killed three people and wounded 23, six of them seriously," he added. According to another hospital official there were three attackers. One stayed behind at the entrance and two went in to throw the grenades. Early reports indicate that one of the attackers was killed but there was no immediate comment from the authorities of how he died. "After the diplomats, obviously the missionaries are a target now," a senior government official told IRIN in the capital Islamabad. "The diplomats have been provided good security but missionaries do not have as much security so they can be easy targets." The eye hospital, established in 1929, has long been serving people from all over Pakistan and was popular for the free treatment it provided to the poor. The chapel, inside the hospital in front of a sprawling lawn, was set up in 1950s. "This is simply evil. The hospital has done so much good work for Muslims and everyone," an Islamabad resident told IRIN upon hearing the news. Shahbaz Bhatti, chairman of All Pakistan Minority Alliance and a leading Christian rights activists, told IRIN from the hospital that everyone was "saddened and angry" at the site. "These incidents are a reaction of pro-Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces against the Christian community," Bhatti said. "And this will continue because the government has failed to provide security as we had repeatedly asked them to do." Meanwhile Pakistani officials say Monday's atack on a school for foreign students in the resort town of Murree, appeared to be aimed at the foreign community rather than a minority faith in Muslim-majority Pakistan. There were reportedly 150 foreign students and staff at the time of the incident. Local newspapers reported on Wednesday that police had evidence that three men who blew themselves up on Tuesday, after being challenged by police in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, were the same gang that carried out the school attack. Bhatti said the international community must act now to help protect the minorities in Pakistan. "We need protection of our houses, places of worship, schools and persons," he demanded. In March, five people including the wife and daughter of an American diplomat died in a grenade attack on a church in Islamabad. Last October, 16 Christians and one Muslim were massacred in a church in Bahawalpur in the populous Punjab province. Islamic militants have been incensed by President Pervez Musharraf's decision to support the US-led campaign against terrorism, which routed the Taliban from power in Afghanistan last year. Friday's attack will intensify security concerns among foreign nationals, many of whom are now reevaluating their presence in the country.