Edevelop
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2007
- Messages
- 14,735
- Reaction score
- 23
- Country
- Location
Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif has warned he may abandon plans to hold peace talks with Taliban after Islamic militants claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing of a Peshawar church, where the death toll increased to 85.
Enraged Christian protesters accused the government of failing to protect their community after two suicide bombers from the Jundullah group, part of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) alliance, detonated their explosive vests as more than 350 worshippers were leaving All Saints Church in Peshawar after Sunday Mass. More than half the victims were women and children in the worst atrocity committed on Pakistan’s Christian minority since the country’s creation in 1947.
The attack was carried out barely two weeks after Mr Sharif won all-party support to open fresh negotiations with the TTP, an umbrella organisation comprised of 30 militant groups, in a bid to end the country’s Taliban insurgency. The bombing unleashed an outpouring of anger from Christians throughout Pakistan, who claimed Mr Sharif’s government, and Imran Khan, the former cricketer whose PTI party controls the provincial government, had been 'soft’ on the Taliban.
Several hundred demonstrators smashed windows at the Lady Reading Hospital in the city where many of the 100 injured were treated, 600 protestors blocked a main highway in Islamabad, and demonstrations were also held in Lahore and Karachi, calling for greater security for Pakistan’s minorities.
An estimated 100 Christians gathered in front of All Saints Church where the suicide bombers struck on Sunday and chanted “Imran is a dog”. Mr Sharif was bound for the United States, where he is expected to meet Barack Obama and explain his earlier decisions to release the Afghan Taliban’s former deputy leader Mullah Baradar and hold talks with Taliban militants in Pakistan. Speaking during a stop in London, he said the attack had sabotaged the immediate prospects for discussions. “We had proposed the process of dialogue with good intentions and this enjoyed the backing of all the political parties,” he said. But following the attack on All Saints, “the government will be unable to proceed as it intended”, the prime minister declared.
Peshawar church attack: Nawaz Sharif warns that Taliban talks could be scrapped - Telegraph
Enraged Christian protesters accused the government of failing to protect their community after two suicide bombers from the Jundullah group, part of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) alliance, detonated their explosive vests as more than 350 worshippers were leaving All Saints Church in Peshawar after Sunday Mass. More than half the victims were women and children in the worst atrocity committed on Pakistan’s Christian minority since the country’s creation in 1947.
The attack was carried out barely two weeks after Mr Sharif won all-party support to open fresh negotiations with the TTP, an umbrella organisation comprised of 30 militant groups, in a bid to end the country’s Taliban insurgency. The bombing unleashed an outpouring of anger from Christians throughout Pakistan, who claimed Mr Sharif’s government, and Imran Khan, the former cricketer whose PTI party controls the provincial government, had been 'soft’ on the Taliban.
Several hundred demonstrators smashed windows at the Lady Reading Hospital in the city where many of the 100 injured were treated, 600 protestors blocked a main highway in Islamabad, and demonstrations were also held in Lahore and Karachi, calling for greater security for Pakistan’s minorities.
An estimated 100 Christians gathered in front of All Saints Church where the suicide bombers struck on Sunday and chanted “Imran is a dog”. Mr Sharif was bound for the United States, where he is expected to meet Barack Obama and explain his earlier decisions to release the Afghan Taliban’s former deputy leader Mullah Baradar and hold talks with Taliban militants in Pakistan. Speaking during a stop in London, he said the attack had sabotaged the immediate prospects for discussions. “We had proposed the process of dialogue with good intentions and this enjoyed the backing of all the political parties,” he said. But following the attack on All Saints, “the government will be unable to proceed as it intended”, the prime minister declared.
Peshawar church attack: Nawaz Sharif warns that Taliban talks could be scrapped - Telegraph