Christians fear fresh attacks

PESHAWAR, Sept 24: A devastating terrorist attack on a church here has triggered fears among the country’s beleaguered Christian community that they will be targeted in a fresh wave of militant violence. The attack which claimed more than 80 lives is believed to be the deadliest attack on the small Christian community. The country has been wracked by years of militant violence and a rising tide of sectarian attacks among Muslims, but before now the biggest concern among Christians has usually been mob violence triggered by blasphemy allegations. They make up just two per cent of the country’s 180 million population. Sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shias has risen alarmingly in recent years, but Christians have largely escaped the bloodshed. Sunday’s carnage has raised fears that this might change. “We have been treated like sinners. We have no lands, we have no factories, we have no business,” said Saleem Haroon, who came to see two wounded cousins at the Lady Reading hospital. “It is a new war. Before, the Shias were the target, but now we are the target. They want to create a new battle, a new battleground.” Danish Yunas, 35, a driver who was lucky to escape from the blast with just a leg wound, said Christians and Muslims had got on well in the past, but he feared those days were at an end. “We had very good relations with the Muslims --- there was no tension before that blast, but we fear that this is the beginning of a wave of violence against the Christians,” he said. The Bishop of Peshawar, Humphrey Peters, said he had asked the authorities to review security for Christians but to no avail. “I am afraid that this is the beginning, it can spread to the rest of Pakistan. “We are the soft target. The Christians are the soft target,” he said. “We are the poorest of the poor in this particular region and then we are also marginalised.” In the poor, grimy streets around All Saints church, they raged against the federal government and, in particular, against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government led by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). “We have been betrayed.... Yesterday, none of the government came here,” said teacher Asif Nawab outside the church. PTI came to power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in elections in May on the promise of a “tsunami” of change. But after losing most of her family in the attack, middle-aged Afia Zaheen was left to wonder if the change that had come was a new fear of attacks. “In the elections Imran Khan said this is a tsunami, it will bring change, but where is the tsunami? Is this the change?” she said.—AFP