Agencies
Islamabad, Dec 17: Two suicide bombers attacked a packed church during a Sunday service in the restive Pakistani city of Quetta, killing nine people and injuring 44 others in a targeted assault on the minority Christian community ahead of Christmas in the Muslim nation.
The Islamic State (ISIS) terror group claimed responsibility for the attack. The group’s Amaq News Agency posted a statement online, saying attackers had stormed the church in Quetta — the capital of Balochistan province. But the terror group provided no evidence for the claim. Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti said that at least two suicide bombers were involved in the attack on the Bethel Memorial Church on Zarghoon road in Quetta.
“One attacker was killed at the gate by police after an intense gunfight while the other wearing suicide vest entered the church and detonated his explosives,” he said. Bugti said that the terrorists had weapons and it seems they wanted to take hostages inside the church. “The security forces foiled their plan,” he added.
Balochistan’s Inspector General Moazzam Ansari said there were 400 worshippers inside the church when it was attacked. Ansari said that police assigned to the church’s security reacted in a timely manner and averted a much larger tragedy.
“It was a coordinated attack,” he said, adding that the security forces have cleared the church. Dr Wasim Baig of Civil Hospital said that nine people were killed in the attack, including two women. Two women were among the dead, and 10 women and seven children were among the injured, hospital officials said. According to the church’s Facebook page, it had organized different programmes all throughout December to mark Christmas, and was holding a ‘Sunday School Christmas Programme’ at the time of the attack.
