August (Web-only) 2002

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Pakistan grenade attack on missionary hospital chapel service leaves three nurses, one attacker dead
In the second attack this week against Christians in Pakistan, three men this morning attacked the Christian Hospital in Taxila, about 25 miles northwest of Islamabad. Three women were killed and more than two dozen were injured—at least two are in serious condition. One of the attackers was also killed.

Police and government officials say the attackers are probably part of the same group that attacked Murree Christian School on Monday. They were apparently dressed similarly and were unshaven (though reports vary on this last point).

Also like the Murree Christian School attack, the assailants apparently chose the target because of its missionary associations—the Taxila hospital is partly funded by the Presbyterian Church (USA)—but they didn't kill any missionaries. In fact, AFP reports, there were no foreign patients or staff at the hospital at all, nor were there scheduled to be. The only foreign staffer, a Swedish nurse, is on leave.

Pakistani Christians are fearful of more attacks. "If immediate steps are not taken by authorities to provide protection to Christians, I fear that it will lead to the start of genocide in Pakistan," Shahbaz Bhaddi, leader of the All-Pakistan Minorities Alliance, told the Associated Press.

The attack on the Murree Christian School was targeted at children. This attack seems to have been focused on women. Far more women and children attend the chapel services than men, and custom mandates that women exit first. Reuters reports that the attackers "had been waiting by the hospital gates for the daily morning service to end before they struck"—suggesting they could have thrown the grenades into the ...