Daily Mail
September 22, 2013
Two suicide bombers detonated their explosives outside a historic church in Pakistan today killing 75 people in the deadliest-ever attack on the country’s Christian minority.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing in the city of Peshawar, saying it would continue to target non-Muslims until the US stopped drone attacks in the country’s remote tribal region.
The latest drone strike came on Sunday when missiles hit a pair of compounds in the North Waziristan tribal area, killing six suspected militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
The attack on All Saints Church, which also wounded 110 people, underlines the threat posed by the Pakistani Taliban at a time when the government is seeking a peace deal with the militants.
The attack occurred as hundreds of worshippers were coming out of the church in the city’s Kohati Gate district after services to get a free meal of rice.
‘There were blasts and there was hell for all of us,’ said Nazir John, who was at the church with at least 400 other worshippers.
‘When I got my senses back, I found nothing but smoke, dust, blood and screaming people. I saw severed body parts and blood all around.’
Survivors wailed and hugged each other in the wake of the blasts. The white walls of the church, which first opened in the late 1800s, were pockmarked with holes caused by ball bearings or other metal objects contained in the bombs to cause maximum damage.
Blood stained the floor and was splashed on the walls. Plates filled with rice were scattered across the ground.
The attack was carried out by a pair of suicide bombers who detonated their explosives almost simultaneously. Authorities found body parts and have been trying to determine their age.
The blasts killed 75 people and wounded another 110. The dead included women and children.
The number of casualties from the blasts was so high that the hospital was running out of caskets for the dead and beds for the wounded, said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, a former information minister of surrounding Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province who was on the scene.