A pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up outside a 130-year- old All Saints Church in the city of Peshawar after Sunday Mass, killing at least 81 worshippers while injuring 145 in the deadliest attack on Christians in Pakistan. Among the dead were 38 women and 7 children, according to official sources.
City Superintendent of Police Ismail Kharak told the media later that a suicide bomber had entered through the rear gate of the church where a police constable tried to stop him. However, the attacker blew himself up, killing the policeman also. The two attackers struck at the end of a service.
In a statement to news agencies , Ahmad Marwat, who identified
himself as the spokesman for the Jundullah group of the Pakistani Taliban,
claimed responsibility for the attack, saying attacks would
"We carried out the suicide bombings at Peshawar church and will continue to strike foreigners and non-Muslims until drone attacks stop," Ahmad Marwat, told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.
The Associated Press quoted him as saying: "All non-Muslims in Pakistan are our target, and they will remain our target as long as America fails to stop drone strikes in our country."
Jundullah has previously claimed responsibility for attacks on minority Shia Muslims in the southwestern Baluchistan province.
"Terror incidents are not conducive to peace talk'
Sunday's attacks could
complicate efforts by Prime
Hours after
the attack, Nawaz Sharif said that the government and nation were unable to
"We had proposed the process of dialogue with good intention and this enjoyed
the backing of all the political parties ," Nawaz said while talking to the newsmen after arriving
in London from Pakistan. The prime
He said incidents like the attack on a church in Peshawar are not a good omen
for the intended dialogue.
"Such incidents are not conducive for peace
talks ," Nawaz said in televised remarks.
"Unfortunately, because of this, the government is unable to move forward on
what it had envisaged, on what it had wished for."
On September 9, Pakistan's political leadership decided to hold peace talks with Pakistani Taliban who have been battling the armed forces in different parts of the northern territories along Pak-Afghan border. Alluding to the US, which has been unhappy with previous peace deals between Pakistan government and the Taliban, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told the participants of an all-party conference: "The decision to hold talks with Taliban is our own. No one should have any objection to that."
The all-party conference was called by Sharif in hopes of
reaching national consensus on how to
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an alliance of militant groups that have been battling the Pakistani army in different parts of the northwestern tribal belt for the past decade, has welcomed the new government offer to launch peace talks. The TTP spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid, said Taliban would be willing to enter into "meaningful dialogue" after the government announced its policy on how to proceed.
Imran Khn asks why terror attacks occur whenever talks are on cards
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman, Imran Khan has questioned as to why attacks like Sunday's strike on a Peshawar Church take place, specially, at a time when preparations are afoot to initiate peace talks.
Talking to media after inquiring about the health of people injured in the blasts at Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, the PTI chief said all the political parties had decided to hold talks with the Taliban at the recently held All Parties Conference and the Peshawar blasts should not be politicized.
Imran Khan, whose party rules the volatile Pakhtunkhwa province, emerged as the third biggest political party in last May's elections. One of his party's major plank was to take out Pakistan from America's war on terror. Last year he led a long march against the US drone attacks which he says foment militancy in Pakistan.
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