police named one of three gunmen who stormed a Presbyterian hospital killing 3 nurses and wounding at least 25 others, reports said Sunday August 11.
The Pope expressed his "profound grief" over the attacks against this and other Christian installations in a telegram Saturday, August 10, to the Papal representative in Pakistan, the Voice of America (VOA) and wire services said.
He urged the international community to build a world of peace and tolerance where, he stressed, "such acts of violence will neither be condoned nor forgiven."
Police officials identified the attacker killed during the grenade assault on Friday August 9 in the hospital chapel at Taxila, just outside Islamabad, as Kamran Mir from Rawalpindi, VOA reported.
ISLAMIC GROUP
Investigators said that the suspect is believed to have been a member of an outlawed Islamic militant group, which they refused to name, and added that two other attackers escaped.
The Taxila hospital is one of two major facilities operated by the United Presbyterian Medical Board of Pakistan, the US based Presbyterian News Service (PNS) reported.
It was established as a partnership between the Presbyterian Church in Pakistan and the PC(USA). The other facility is in Sialkot, PNS said.
Founded by Dr J.B. Martin, it began serving rural patients in 1922 and its 766 beds are mainly dedicated to eye patients and the others to general and obstetrical patients.
SECURITY GUARDS
David Francis, an official of the Presbyterian Church in Pakistan who went to Taxila after the attack, told PNS that security guards delayed the militants, which he said "prevented" a greater loss of life among staff members who had gathered in the hospital chapel.
The hospital is located near the town of Muree, where 6 people were killed in violence that targeted an interdenominational Protestant school there, earlier in the week.
PNS said that the children of PCUSA medical missionaries Jim and Carol Brees are attending school there, although there were no reports of injuries among them.
SCHOOL ASSAULT
Pakistani security officials told reporters that those responsible for the attack at the Presbyterian hospital were also linked to the assault on the Christian school near Islamabad, where gunmen killed six Pakistani employees before reportedly escaping.
Church officials have linked the attacks to anger over Pakistan’s support for the United States war against terrorism, which began after more than 3,000 people died when hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11.
Islamic militant violence against Christian and Western facilities in Pakistan has increased since President Pervez Musharraf banned five extremist groups early this year.
