In an edited version, Daniel O’Connor, a Columban priest working in the Diocese of Hyderabad in Pakistan, reports on the aftermath of the Peshawar church bombing two weeks ago.
The prayerful and peaceful atmosphere in All Saints Anglican Church, Peshawar, was shattered on 22 September when two suicide bombers exploded their bombs and killed 85 people and injuring many more. Militants linked to Pakistani Taliban have said they carried out the bombing but no one has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks.
All Saints Church is the second oldest church in Peshawar and was built in 1893. “Soon after the service ended we came out of the main hall”, said Nazir John, whose clothes were stained with blood; “Some people were greeting each other and others were queuing for food when a suicide bomber blew himself up”.
Pakistan has been plagued by terrorist attacks that have claimed the lives of their leaders and ordinary, innocent people. The Christian community included have struggled as they try to live peacefully in Pakistan. The attack on Joseph Colony, Lahore, in March and the false accusations of blasphemy against a teenage girl in Islamabad are other recent reminders of the difficulties the Christian community have had to endure.
In one district, the administrator and police advised the Christian community to raise the boundary walls of their church by at least eleven feet and to top it off with steel wire.
After the bombing, protest demonstrations and mourning processions erupted in hundreds of towns and cities across the country. All schools run by the various churches where children from all religious traditions attend were closed for three days as an act of solidarity and protest.
In the Columban parish of Badin, in the Diocese of Hyderabad, a peaceful protest rally of approximately 100 people started in the church and made its way through the main streets. Other minority groups joined including representatives of the Gujarati Hindu community, amongst them a large group of women.
The Gurjaratis are a low caste Hindu, and like the Punjabi Christians, predominately sweep the streets and clean the sewers and because of their low caste are treated as second class citizens. They normally keep a low profile but on this day they carried the tools of their trade.
Other Hindus including members of the minority Shia community visited the Church to express their sympathy and solidarity.
The non-governmental organisation, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, was sickened by the brutal attack. “The massacre of Christian citizens is an affront to the values that Jinnah’s Pakistan must stand for, it is an insult to the principles propagated by Islam and a damming citizens’ indictment of the State for its failure to protect its citizens, especially minorities and their religious freedoms.”
Archbishop Joseph Coutts and a large number of people gathered outside St Patrick’s Cathedral, in Karachi, for a peaceful and prayerful protest, organised by the National Justice and Peace Commission of the Bishops’ Conference.
Saify Ali Khan, an advocate of the Supreme Court said that what happened gave a wrong message to the international community about Pakistan. “It is really the terrorists who are against Islam here” he said; “they are not Muslims because Islam gives the message of love for the entire humanity”. A young girl commented: “I do not want to think about people being killed when I am at church with my parents”. A young woman quietly said: “For the culprits responsible for the bomb attacks in Peshawar, I can only say, forgive them Father for they do not know what they do.”
In such circumstances, such magnanimity and humanity gives a glimpse of a more peaceful future.
Fr Daniel O'Connor has recently returned to Sindh Province, Pakistan from New Zealand.
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