Author:
Publication: Yahoo News
Date: October 28, 2001
URL: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011028/ts/pakistan_church_attack_2.html
BEHAWALPUR, Pakistan (AP)- Unidentified
attackers opened fire Sunday morning on a Christian church in southern
Pakistan, killing at least 16 worshippers, police and hospital officials
said.
The attack took place in the town
of Behawalpur, 60 miles south of the city of Multan, in Pakistan's Punjab
province.
``We received eight dead bodies,
and we have been told that eight more bodies are lying outside the church,''
said Dr. Altaf Malik, medical superintendent of the Civil Hospital of Behawalpur.
He said ``at least five'' more people were being treated for bullet wounds.
Behawalpur Police Chief Haris Ikram,
reached by telephone from Islamabad, also put the number of dead at 16.
There was no immediate claim of
responsibility for the attack, but intelligence officials said members
of a banned Islamic group were under suspicion. They gave no details.
Police said no arrests were immediately
made. A city police dispatcher in Behawalpur, reached by telephone, said
the situation was under control.
There have been religious tensions
between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the area, but this was the first such
attack on Christians in recent memory, authorities said.
Police said at least 100 people
were in the church when six unidentified attackers on motorcycles sprayed
the church with gunfire.
Residents said the church was Roman
Catholic, but that Protestants also were participating in services Sunday
morning, as usual, because they do not have their own church in the area.
Malik said that after the shootings,
grieving family members angered that their loved ones could not be saved
came to the hospital, screaming at doctors and destroying some medical
equipment. They were not charged with anything.
``We remained calm. We behaved in
a sensible manner, because we knew they were grieving,'' the doctor said.
Pakistan, whose full name is the
Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is 97 percent Muslim. The remaining 3 percent
includes the country's few Christians
