A pair of suicide bombers detonated in the church at Qissa Khawani bazaar in Peshawar today, killing at least 81 people and wounding 145 others. Many of the wounded are severely injured and are not expected to survive.
The twin blasts tore through the 130 year old church and overwhelmed nearby hospitals, and by evening security forces were still struggling to put together the enhanced security at hospitals that is standard procedure after major attacks.
The attack was immediately claimed by a Pakistani Taliban faction, calling itself Junood-ul Hifsa. The group is under the umbrella of other Taliban factions, and says strikes on non-Muslims will continue until the US ends its drone strike campaign against Pakistan.
The attack also sparked angry protests in Pakistan’s Christian minority communities in several major cities, including a clash with police in Karachi. Protesters complained that the government has been unduly lax in security for them, while making other sites much harder to hit.
A three day period of mourning has been declared over the Peshawar killings, but the attack will have ramifications far beyond the next few days, and will be a major challenge for the Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaf (PTI)-led provincial government.
The US of Empire has caused more violence against Christians in Muslim nations because of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and possible war in Syria. And because of the drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen.
There could be several reasons that created such militant rage:
1.murdering claim of Bin Laden ongoing drone murder (with huge civilian victims)
2. long term education to create militant extremists in Pakistan Afghanistan organized by USA
3. grabbing ("buying") children from poor people and brainwash them in Christian schools, give them influential posts of western companies who give jobs only to Christians and try to develop an internal Pakistani ruling group of western agents and spies in the interest of these companies, the states and the Christian churches. (A Pakistani Ayurveda doctor told me this)
Since no 2 is hardly reported in mainstream media:
check these proofs:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted that the USA created Al Qaeda/Jihadis/Mujahedin
Find this Hillary video interview by searching for Hillary at: http://08oo.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/key-reasons-…
Washington Post, 23 March 2002:
“The United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings….The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then as the Afghan school system’s core curriculum. Even the Taliban used the American-produced books,..”,
“Advertisements, paid for from CIA funds, were placed in newspapers and newsletters around the world offering inducements and motivations to join the [Islamic] Jihad.” (Pervez Hoodbhoy, Peace Research, 1 May 2005)
Source: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va…
The CIA’s Islamist Terrorist Network http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2012/09/12/…
As you possibly know, these killer troops were not only used to crash down Afghanistan (the communist Afghan government and their later Soviet supporters), they were used in the war to
– dismantle 1992-99:Yugoslavia (Bosnia Kosovo),
– 1991:Iraq (Shia uprisings organized by USA)
– Chechnya,
– Sudan,
– Libya,
– Mali (to give French troops a reason for Occupation and let people of Mali prefer French occupation over being suppressed by the US controlled Jihadi killers)
– and since two years in the US/NATO terror war against Syria.
(Who does not believe that this is an US terror war should check the first two videos and the text around them – the former French foreign minister Dumas reports from British government meetings that the planned to send terrorists to Syria, long before the first staged "uprise" in Syria, even more planned wars by US defense ministry, against 7 states in 5 years were reported from US General Wesley Clark.
The Saudi gift that keeps on giving.
Islamist Terror in Pakistan and Religious Minorities
Nasir Khan, September 22, 2013
Yet another dastardly mass slaughter of 78 Pakistani Christians at the hands of Islamist criminals has shaken many of us. But this abominable crime is not an isolated episode; it repeats a familiar pattern within Pakistan where Islamist suicide bombers target religious minorities.
Today they chose Christians and perpetrated one of the worst mass killings of these poor, marginalised and discriminated people within the so-called ‘Islamic’ (!!) Republic of Pakistan. The bombers struck when the worshippers went out of the church to get a free meal of rice. Had the bombers chosen the congregation within the church, the death toll could have been in hundreds.
Such killings and rampant violence against others such as Shias, Ahmadis, and also some Left-wing political activists, have been going on unabated for a long time in Pakistan. It is no secret that the people behind these actions are mostly religious extremists and fanatic rogues. However, we should bear in mind that the Christians of Pakistan fall in a special category. In a caste-ridden society that prevails Pakistan, they have been at the lowest level of social ladder. Most of them are discriminated and seen as a people with ‘low social status’. Traditionally, the jobs they have done for generations have been cleaning, sweeping and other menial jobs.
Today’s barbarous crime is a major tragedy for all those people in and outside Pakistan with a human conscience who want to see an end to such bestial actions and have respect towards all human beings and security of human life in this country. We side with our Christian fellow citizens at this time and condemn what the criminals have done. But the real danger is that such crimes will be committed again. Such inhuman crimes have become so common in Pakistan that people take them as a matter of routine and say such was the ‘Will of God’.
After every such crime, political leaders and government officials offer a ritualistic condemnation and express their sadness but no concrete actions are taken to address the root cause of the Islamist terrorism in Pakistan. Unless there is a clear policy how to deal with this threat on a long-term basis leading to a general mobilisation to cope with the Islamist threat that is destroying the social fabric of this unfortunate country, nothing is going to change. Sadly, our anger and grief will not change the facts on the ground. Because the Islamist rogues are free to strike whenever they want or whoever they choose as their next target.
We all must condemn the attack in the strongest term possible, such heinous crimes can have no justification except in the twisted mind of the perpetrators themselves. Hope the government is able to track them down swiftly.
I disagree with Mr Khan's use of the term 'Islamist' in this context. Although many leftists as well as secular-minded Pakistanis like to use this term (borrowed from American neocons) the use is quite counter-productive. What we need is to focus our attention on the actual criminals rather than defocus it by using a term which (by most neocon definitions) can be applied to 80 to 90 percent of the population. Ask any ordinary villagers if he would like to follow the Sharia, the answer would mostly be yes.
I also disagree with the last paragraph which seems to imply that the government is not trying to do anything. As is well known that many political leaders, senior civil bureaucrats and high ranking military officials have been killed by the terrorists. These are the folks who run the country so it is in their own best interest to obliterate the threat. However, there are many factors which has made it a difficult task. The main question here is how to do it. The use of force just increases the size of insurgency. The negotiations are sabotaged — sometime by drone attacks and sometime by criminal elements. The old system of Jirga is not working because the government of Pakistan is now perceived to be 'American agent'. Many Pakistani intelligence agents in the area have been killed, making it more difficult to get timely and actionable information. I do hope that the government is able to overcome all these difficulties and bring peace back. Pakistan's tribal belt was a very was a very peaceful place before this so-called war-on-terror.
The religion of peace strikes again.
The fact is Islam and Christianity have peacefully coexisted throughout that region for centuries. This particular church has stood there for 130 years. What does that tell you?
These acts of murder cannot be condoned but they must be understood within the context of Christianity's apparent support of Zionism, as well as America's reckless conduct throughout the Middle East. 'Christian' America and Great Britain have been attacking Muslim-majority nations for decades. These recent terrorist attacks are political blow-back. This violence is not about theology.
When I was in Syria before the civil war there began, I saw many churches there and visited many church leaders as well as many mosques. Islam considers Christ a prophet. Secular Syria under Assad was very hospitable to Christianity. Islam is ancient and, in the absence of war, does tolerate other faiths.
These recent attacks on Christian and Jewish institutions reflect the Muslim world's deep disdain for Zio-America's lethal foreign policies.