Pakistan killed 4 and wounded 42 Christians

 

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From: (Copy from CTV news)
Date: 10/14/02
Time: 9:53:22 PM
Remote Name: 66.38.184.125

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(Pakistan killed 4 and wounded 42 Christians)

From: (Copy from CTV news)

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http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20020317/ctvnews851842/

Updated Sun. Mar. 17 2002 8:09 PM ET

Pakistan grenade attack kills 5, wounds 42

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Five dead in Pakistan grenade attack 1:08 Reports unclear over number of attackers 1:03 Grenade attack targets worshippers in Pakistan 1:2 Protestant church attacked in Pakistan 1:32

CTV News StaffA grenade attack Sunday morning on a church full of expatriate worshippers in Islamabad killed five people and wounded 42, including three Canadians.An American woman and her teenaged daughter -- family members of a U.S.

diplomat -- were among the five killed when two grenades exploded inside the Protestant International Church full of about 70 people. Others killed were one Pakistani, one Afghan and an unidentified person.The Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa confirmed Sunday that three Canadians were treated in hospital and released."At this time the department is aware the small number of Canadians received minor injuries and have received medical attention," said spokeswoman Mia Yen.

In addition to the Canadians, a Pakistan government statement said the injured included Britons, Australians, Swiss, Sri Lankans, Afghans, Pakistanis, Iranians, an Iraqi, an Ethopian and a German.No one has claimed responsibility but pro-Taliban militants are suspected. Pakistan abandoned support for the Taliban after Sept.

11.There are conflicting reports over whether there were one or two attackers. Late Sunday, senior police superintendent Nasir Khan Durrani said authorities believed only one attacker was involved.

Durrani said the assailant may have died in the attack.The church, a popular place of worship for expatriates in Islamabad, is located in a heavily guarded diplomatic enclave about one kilometre from the U.S. Embassy.

Worshippers dove for cover as explosions ripped through the church, filling it with smoke and splattering inside with blood."I saw a fellow throwing some grenades," an elderly German woman who gave her name as Jutta told Reuters.

"I got down. Praise God I was spared but others were seriously injured. It was havoc."Nick Parham, a Briton who works for the Tearfund aid agency, told Reuters he saw the attacker at close range."One chap came down the aisle a couple of feet away from me. He had a belt on with a whole load of what looked like British army smoke grenades or home-made grenades," Parham said.Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf called the attack a "ghastly act of terrorism," according to the state news agency.U.S.

President George Bush, said he was "outraged" by the attack and vowed to lend U.S. help in hunting down the attackers."I strongly condemn them as acts of murder that cannot be tolerated by any person of conscience nor justified by any cause," Bush said in a statement issued by the White House.British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the attack is "part of a continuing effort by dissident extremist terrorists to try to destabilize President Musharraf's government and the support which he enjoys from around the world, including the western nations."This is the second attack on a Pakistani Christian church since then. In October, gunmen killed 15 worshippers and a Muslim guard during a Sunday service.