Pakistani church gunmen showed no mercy

Even though they could see children being hit, the gunmen kept on firing, reports RICHARD LLOYD PARRY.

ISLAMABAD - Soon after the bombing of Afghanistan began this month, menacing slogans were daubed on walls near St Dominic's Church in Bahawalpur.

Police sent officers to stand guard outside. On Sunday, Muslim policeman Mohammad Salim was the first one to die.

It was 8.55 am local time, and the service inside St Dominic's in the southern Pakistani town was drawing to a close. Salim would have seen the motorbikes pull up, and the men - five or six, depending on the witness - who climbed off them, carrying long heavy bags.

The men were bearded, conventionally dressed in loose cotton shirts, and unmasked. Salim might not have realised anything was wrong until the bags were unzipped and Kalashnikov assault rifles pulled out. By that time it was much too late for him, and for the people praying inside St Dominic's.

One of the gunmen waited at the gate by Salim's dead body, and another lingered in the grounds. Three of them walked into the church which contained a congregation of about 60.

The Kalashnikovs were on automatic; the firing went on for about five minutes. The people inside could hide under the wooden pews. They could run behind the altar, and try to shelter their children from the bullets. Otherwise, they were completely defenceless. Yesterday 16 dead bodies were inside the church and reports said more had died in hospital of their wounds.

The first to die was the priest, Pastor Emmanuel. Five of the dead were children, including two brothers, 2 and 8 years old. Four were women, and half a dozen were members of the same family.

Shamoon Masih was shot in the leg and the arm.

"They had no mercy for the children," he said. "They had no mercy for the women. They could see that small children were being hit by bullets, but they kept firing."

Ali Shah was sitting in the front pew when the killers appeared, as far away from them as could be.

"Some of [the congregation] lay down," he said. "Some begged for mercy. They didn't listen."

Less than 10 minutes after the bikes had pulled up, it was all over.

Sister Anna Bakhshi, a nun at St Dominic's Convent next door, heard the shooting and watched the men run out of the compound. She ran into the church herself seconds after they had gone.

"I saw dead bodies," she said. "There wasn't a single wall that didn't have a bullet hole. There were holes in the walls, in the floor, in the altar. The people were hysterical, they were calling out the names of the people who were dead. There was blood ...

"This wasn't just one gun firing - there were three or four of them and they were all firing on automatic all at the same time.

"Since September 11, we knew that something might happen. For Christians in this country, it's an automatic reaction - you feel afraid. But never this, nothing like this."

Pakistan has always been a violent country, and murders, gang killings and sectarian assassinations occur almost daily. But even by local standards, this was an exceptionally vicious and incendiary attack.



The Pakistani President, General Pervez Musharraf, said: "The method used and the inhuman tactics clearly indicate involvement of trained terrorists. I would ... like to assure everyone that we will track down the culprits and bring them to justice."

In another mysterious attack, three people were killed in the southwestern city of Quetta when a bomb exploded on a bus.

Yesterday no one had claimed responsibility for either of the attacks, but no one in Bahawalpur has any doubt about the killers' affiliation.

One witness said they shouted "Pakistan and Afghanistan, graveyard of Christians", "Allah is great", and "This is just the start".

Sister Anna doubts that version of events, "but there's no question that this was because of the attacks on Afghanistan".

"Most of the Muslims are our friends," she said. "The Muslims who live around here, they are as shocked as we are. But there are extremists, organisations who believe that as non-Muslims we're part of the United Kingdom or the United States. They call us infidels. We're not part of the community."

Does the St Dominic's massacre mark the beginning of what has long been predicted - a violent backlash against those symbolically associated with the West?

On October 7, three hours before the bombing raids began, I sat in a hotel in Karachi with Shafiqur Rehman, spokesman for Defenders of the Holy Prophet, one of the most extreme of Pakistan's militant groups. "If there is any attack on Afghanistan," he said, "there will be a religious war, and we will threaten American lives and property."

But so far, within Pakistan, these threats had been unfulfilled. There had been vociferous demonstrations in many parts of the country.

But the rhetorical fire and brimstone, the chants of "Death to America", and the incineration in effigy of US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, had not - until Sunday, at least - been matched by physical acts of terror.

All over Pakistan, the obvious foreign targets - embassies, consulates and big companies - have been encircled with barbed wire, armoured personnel carriers and rifle-carrying police. Many expatriates have sent their families home.

So perhaps it was inevitable that the backlash would begin with one of the most vulnerable communities - Christians.

Muslims represent 98 per cent and Christians just 1 per cent of Pakistan's population. Half of them are Protestant and half Catholic.

St Dominic's is a Catholic church, but every Sunday a congregation of Protestants, without premises of their own, hold their service there.



Today, the bodies will be removed from the church and buried. The pews and aisle will be washed of blood, and the school will remain closed.

"The community is very fearful and very angry," said Sister Anna. "What will happen next?"

- INDEPENDENT