[On 22nd of September, last year] was the day when peaceful Christians of Kohati Gate, Peshawar assembled for the Sunday prayer service inside the All Saint’s Church in Peshawar where they were cowardly attacked by a terrorist outfit. The attack resulted in nearly about 130 causalities and over 250 injuries. The world noticed the deadliest attack on the Christian minority in the history of Pakistan. The two suicide bombers detonated a bomb in the midst of the worshiping Christians. The Islamist group “Jundallah” linked to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack and alleged that the attack on Christian and non-Muslims will continue because they are the enemies of Islam. Sadly no arrest has made out so far by the security law enforcement agencies.
The provincial and the federal governments claimed the identification of bodies of the suicide attackers and sent for the examination and to date no report has been brought [out to] the surface. As a humdrum style of investigation of the concerned security agencies the unpleasant incident of the desecration of the All Saint’s Church and unjust killings of innocent Christians, ruthlessly went into hiding. It was also observed that many victims died just by the lack of emergency first aid medical treatment. It was a pity that the victims and their relatives were not provided appropriate medical treatment at the time of the church blast to the victims neither assisting them professionally. The provincial government failed to bring the inquiry report into public and [neither did they] arrange for appropriate care centers for the rehabilitation and psychotherapy for the injured and survived Christians.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr. Justice Tassadduq Hussain Jillani in a suo-moto notice on June 19, 2014 and within court procedural time announced a landmark judgment concerning the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan. The 32 pages judgment is encouraging religious minorities and the minorities welcomed the tough stand of the judiciary against religiously motivated violence. The [crux] of judgment is powerful in its nature as the apex court in accordance with the constitution of Pakistan ordered the government to protect the places of worship of religious minorities and safeguards their fundamental rights.
But I am sorry, the present situation of the church blast victims is [the] worst and survivors including orphans, widows, old age persons, women and children are still suffering for the loss of their dear ones. The compensation money is not enough to address the issue and there is seriously a need to provide protection and appropriate security for the security of their places of worship across the country. After one year of such inhuman attack the Christian residents of Peshawar are still in trauma. The concerned security agencies and departments have not showed their seriousness in the arrest of perpetrators in the best interest of justice.
Religious minorities are already hopeless and if the provincial and federal governments and related security agencies will not take the security matters of minorities serious, such types of incidents will never stop.
http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-172-2013/?searchterm=pakistan%20attacks%20on%20church
http://www.humanrights.asia/opinions/columns/AHRC-ETC-034-2013/?searchterm=pakistan%20attacks%20on%20church
http://www.humanrights.asia/opinions/columns/AHRC-ETC-035-2013/?searchterm=pakistan%20attacks%20on%20church
About the Author: Nadeem Anthony Advocate High Court and an activist for peace and religious freedom. He can be reached at nadeem.anthony@gmail.com
