were detained in Pakistan after a Christmas Day grenade attack at a church killed three girls and injured a dozen others, police said Thursday December 26.
Witnesses said two assailants in burqas, the traditional women’s garb, tossed a grenade at the Presbyterian church in the village of Chianwala, in Daska township, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of the capital Islamabad.
"Two masked men threw a hand grenade on the church during the service," the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)quoted an unidentified police official as saying.
Although there was no official claim of responsibility, those arrested were reportedly members of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, a banned militant group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, the BBC said.
The violence in the Daska region, home to thousands of Pakistani Christians, came as police units narrowly avoided another attack in Islamabad.
GRENADES AND BULLETS
Police said two grenades and about 20 bullets were discovered hidden in a shopping bag near Islamabad’s St. Thomas Protestant Church where about one 1,000 worshippers, including foreigners, attended the Christmas Day service.
"It was God who changed the plans of those people," The Associated Press (AP) quoted the church’s pastor, Rev. Irshad John, as saying about the discovery. "It’s God’s promise that he will be with us," in difficult times, he added.
Anti-Christian sentiment has increased in Pakistan after the Government lent its support to the United States-led military campaign to overthrow Afghanistan’s hard-line Taliban regime as part of what Washington sees as the global war on terrorism.
Recent attacks on Christians by suspected Islamic militants are believed to have killed about 30 people and injured at least 100.
FOUR BLOODY ATTACKS
The last was on September 25, when gunmen entered the offices of a Christian welfare organization in Karachi, tied seven employees to their chairs and shot each in the head.
Earlier this year, On August 9, attackers hurled grenades at worshippers at a church on the grounds of a Presbyterian hospital in Taxila, about 25 miles west (apr.42 kilometres) of Islamabad, killing four people.
Just a few days before on August 5, assailants attacked a Christian school filled with foreign children in Murree, about 40 miles (64 kilometres) east of Islamabad, killing six Pakistanis including guards and non-teaching staff.
On March 17, a grenade attack on a Protestant church in Islamabad killed five people, including a U.S. Embassy employee and her 17-year-old daughter. Pakistani authorities have stepped up security around churches across the country, especially in the festive season, local media reported.
