World News 29-10-2001 Pakistan: Christians Slaughtered At Prayer who: Islamic fundamentalist group Lashkar-I-Jhangvi what: Blamed for massacre at Christian church where: Pakistan when: Yesterday snippet: "Six masked gunmen, thought to be Islamic hardliners sympathetic to Afghanistan`s Taliban regime, shot dead 15 Christians and a policeman during a Sunday service in a central Pakistan town," reports The Financial Times today. "Dozens fell dying and injured among the blood-spattered pews as the gunmen chanted Allah-u-Akbar, meaning God is great," says The Sun. "Victim Ali Shah - who was wounded as he took cover in the front pew - said the killers cut down children without pity." Four children under 12 and four women were among the dead. "The six militants pulled up on motorbikes at the church in the southern town of Bahawalpur shortly after 9am," says The Guardian. "They killed the Muslim security guard at the gate [Muhammed Salim, referred to by other papers today as a police officer], before storming into St Dominic`s church. The morning service attended by around 100 Catholic and Protestant worshippers had just begun." "No organisation claimed responsibility for the atrocity," says The Mirror. "But intelligence sources believed the killers were from the banned Islamic fundamentalist organisation Lashkar-I-Jhangvi." The Pakistani Government reacted swiftly by posting guards around all Christian churches, says The Times, which says the death toll is currently 18. Today`s leader says "the shootings are a deliberate attempt to link Christians to the Western attacks on Afghanistan and were carried out by those who, like Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, want to portray the terrorist attacks on America as a jihad against Crusader and Jewish domination." [... more]

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