Two suicide bombers stormed a packed church in southwestern Pakistan yesterday, killing at least nine people and wounding up to 56, officials said, in the latest attack claimed by the Islamic State group in the country.
Police guards stationed at the entrance of the church in Quetta and on its roof killed one of the bombers but the second attacker detonated his explosives-filled vest outside its prayer hall just after Sunday services began, said Sarfraz Bugti, the provincial home minister.
Baluchistan police chief Moazzam Jah said that there were nearly 400 worshippers in the church for the pre-Christmas service.
The death toll could have been much higher if the gunmen had managed to force their way into the sanctuary, he said.
Each attacker was carrying 15kg (33 pounds) of explosive plus grenades, said civil defence official Aslam Tareen.
Police chief Jah said that the venue – Bethel Memorial Methodist Church – was on high alert as Christian places of worship are often targeted by religious extremists over the Christmas season.
“We killed one of them, and the other one exploded himself after police wounded him,” he said.
The Islamic State (IS) group claimed the attack, the group’s Amaq news agency said in an online statement, without providing evidence to back up its claim.
Another police official, Abdur Razaq Cheema, said that two other attackers escaped.
Amaq reported that two suicide attackers stormed the church.
Cheema said that investigators were analysing CCTV footage to check the claim and had launched a search for any further suspects.
Broken wooden benches, shards of glass and musical instruments were scattered around a Christmas tree inside the prayer hall that was splashed with blood stains.
Kal Alaxander, 52, was at the church with his wife and two children when the attack happened.
“We were in services when we heard a big bang,” he told Reuters. “Then there was shooting. The prayer hall’s wooden door broke and fell on us ... we hid the women and children under desks.”
Liaqat Masih, a member of the congregation, said that he was heartbroken by the violence and feared for his life as the firefight erupted between one attacker and police, who were later reinforced by paramilitaries and regular troops.
“I am devastated to see many of our dear ones dead and wounded today here in front of me,” said Masih, 35.
Maryam George, 20, cried at a hospital where her younger sister Alizeh was fighting for life with two broken legs and multiple other wounds.
Robina Kaka, a doctor at a local hospital, said more than 30 people with injuries were admitted for medical treatment.
At least four people remain in critical condition, and those with minor injuries have been discharged, Kaka added.
Moazzam Jah Ansari, provincial police chief, told a media briefing: “We have special security arrangements for religious places, particularly churches, and today it saved so many precious lives.”
Baluchistan Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti spoke of “a state of war”, saying that there was no warning of the attack.
“God forbid, if the terrorists had succeeded in their plans, more than 400 precious lives would have been at stake,” he tweeted.
Pakistani Christians, who number around 2mn in a nation of more than 200mn people, have been the target of a series of attacks in recent years.
Baluchistan, a strategically-important region bordering Iran as well as Afghanistan, is plagued by violence by religious sectarian groups linked to the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Islamic State.
It also has an indigenous ethnic Baloch insurgency fighting against the central government.
Middle East-based Islamic State has created an active branch in Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent years mostly by recruiting among established militants, and its followers have claimed some of Pakistan’s most deadly attacks in recent years.
A suicide bomber killed 52 people and wounded more than 100 at a Baluchistan Sufi shrine in November last year, in an attack claimed by Islamic State.
In February, Islamic State attacked a Sufi shrine in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, killing 83 people.
Violence in Baluchistan has fuelled concern about security for projects in the $57bn China Pakistan Economic Corridor, a transport and energy link planned to run from western China to Pakistan’s southern deep-water port of Gwadar.
The church attack came a day after the third anniversary of a Pakistani Taliban attack on an army-run school that killed 134 children, one of the single deadliest attacks in the country’s history.
Pakistan’s army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, condemned the attack.
“Quetta church attack targeting our brotherly Christian Pakistanis is an attempt to cloud Christmas celebrations,” he said. “We stay united and steadfast to respond against such heinous attempts.”
He praised the “commendable” actions of law enforcement agencies after the attack.


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