Christians gunned down in Pakistani church

28 Oct, 2001 09:59 AM5 mins to read

MULTAN - Masked gunmen shot dead up to 16 Christians at prayers last night in an unprecedented attack in the central Pakistani town of Bahawalpur.

Christians have expressed fears they could become targets if unrest broke out in Muslim Pakistan over opposition to the United States attacks on Afghanistan.

Six men on three motorcycles rode up to Saint Dominic's Church and pulled out AK47 assault rifles from bags. They shot two police guards before entering the packed church firing indiscriminately.

Police have been posted at Christian churches since September 11 attacks on the US blamed on Saudi-born Osama bin Laden who is believed to be in Afghanistan.

Christians are about 1 per cent of Pakistan's 120 million population.

Earlier, US warplanes pounded Taleban positions around Kabul yesterday but one bomb killed at least 10 people in a village controlled by Afghanistan's opposition Northern Alliance.

Waves of bombers hit positions of the hardline Muslim militia in the north of the capital overnight.

Qatar's al-Jazeera television said a stray bomb hit a village a few kilometres from the front line. It said Italian medical staff operating in the area confirmed the attack, saying 16 people were killed.

A source at the Northern Alliance Foreign Ministry also told al-Jazeera that the village had been hit, but gave no details.

Witnesses in Kabul said the raids were less intense yesterday than on Saturday, when a Red Cross warehouse was hit during some of the heaviest bombing yet.

The Taleban controls some 90 per cent of Afghanistan and its lightly armed soldiers have not collapsed under the three-week air onslaught.

"The Taleban seem to be very much intact as far as the overall structure is concerned," said Fazal-ur-Rahman, a senior research fellow at Islamabad's Institute of Strategic Studies.

Eric Ouannes, of French agency Action Contre la Faim, which has about 700 local staff working in the country, said there was no breakdown in Taleban authority.

Britain's Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, said the organisation could collapse overnight, but its "fanaticism" could sustain it into the new year.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, under fire at home from Islamic opponents for dropping support for the Taleban, has said the bombing must be as short and targeted as possible.

The Jamiat Ulema Islam party has called a day of protests in Pakistan for today, and about 4500 Pakistani tribesmen who support the Taleban are heading towards the Afghan border armed with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket launchers.

But the Taleban now also face 140 Russian armoured vehicles donated to the Northern Alliance, Britain's commitment of ground forces in the form of 200 Royal Marines expert in mountain warfare, and the threat of assassinations by the CIA.

And opposition warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum said yesterday that he had scored successes in three days of fighting the Taleban near the strategic northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

"We have killed 80 Taleban soldiers and taken 20 prisoners, including a Pakistani commander," Dostum said. His forces had destroyed 18 Taleban armoured vehicles, including tanks.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that the CIA was considering secret missions aimed at killing individuals that the US designated as "terrorists".

The agency believes it has the authority for covert, "targeted killing" missions based on classified memorandums written by the Bush and Clinton Administrations, the newspaper reported.

It would be the first time the CIA considered covert killings since the 1970s, when the agency abandoned the tactic following a series of assassination scandals and subsequent presidential directives designed to rein in the agency.

President George W. Bush has signed a broad "finding" that directs attacks against the suspect for the terrorist attacks, Osama bin Laden, and his al Qaeda network. His predecessor, Bill Clinton, had authorised covert action against al Qaeda starting in 1998.

The Post reported that the CIA was reluctant to accept the new authority. But the agency believed it was capable of hunting down and killing US enemies, and was considering the details.

The killings might not be publicly acknowledged, but the CIA wants to make sure that there will be a paper trail inside the Government that puts responsibility for the decision clearly on elected officials.

Meanwhile, among almost 1000 people being held in the US in connection with the terrorist attacks are people who made congratulatory telephone calls minutes after the hijacked aircraft hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the New York Times reported yesterday.

Officials have said some of the calls were "congratulatory, even gloating".

These suspected associates of bin Laden are among 977 people held on various charges related to the September 11 attacks.

FBI agents intercepted telephone calls, moved in and made arrests, holding the bulk of those arrested on immigration or criminal violations and a smaller group on material witness warrants, the newspaper reported.

It had been unable to determine whether those who made the jubilant calls were participants in the hijacking plot or merely rejoicing over the attacks.

- REUTERS

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