(UCAN): The resurgence of terrorist attacks in Pakistan has put the onus on the Church to better protect itself with more security measures.
“We are being asked to hire private guards, install closed-circuit television cameras, and raise the height of boundary walls of churches,” said Father Nasir William, parish priest of St. Peter Canisius Catholic Church in Abboattabad.
“It is already 12 feet [3.6 metres] high,” the priest said, citing a letter sent by local police in Abboattabad, where former al-Qaeda chief, Osama bin Laden, was killed in a US raid in 2011. He received the letter on July 30 after a suicide blast at a political rally in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
“All the churches in our diocese have already adopted such security measures. The visits of security officials have become rampant but the tragedies continue. What more can we do?” asked the priest, who is also director of the Commission for Social Communications of the Diocese of Islamabad-Rawalpindi.
The government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa already provides at least two police officers to escort priests and nuns of the insurgency-hit province, bordering Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
On July 31, the Islamic State-Khorasan claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing at a political gathering the previous day that has so far claimed 54 lives, including 23 children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The attack on the gathering of around 400 members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, a prominent ruling coalition ally, led by hardline politician Fazlur Rehman, took place near a market in Bajaur and police said nearly 12 kilograms of explosives were used in the blast.
“The blast in Bajaur made existing tensions really come to the fore. We strongly condemn the brutal attack where many innocent people have lost their lives and many got injuries. The people responsible must be brought to justice,” Archbishop Joseph Arshad, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan, said.
