Pakistan mourns terrorist attacks on Lahore Churches

Two Taliban suicide bombers attacked the two churches in  Lahore during the prayer service on Sunday. The two churches located around half a kilometre apart in the city’s Youhanabad neighbourhood, which is home to more than 100,000 Christians, officials said.

The missionary schools have been closed in Lahore and protests being observed in other cities across Pakistan to condemn the attacks on the Christian minority’s worship places in Punjab’s provincial capital city.

The lawyers associations have announced to observe the black day today to protest against the terrorist incident.

A mob of young men in the eastern city of Pakistan, many armed with clubs, also protesting today against the attacks.

The dead bodies of the victims were transferred to Jinnah Hospital for postmortem. The announcement regarding last rites of the victims of the attacks will be announced after consultation with the Church of Pakistan, sources said. The relatives of the victims said that the Christian leadership will decide about the last rites of the victims.

The Christians in Quetta have announced to hold protest rallies and prayer services at churches today. The local administration has announced to provide security for the prayer services and protest rallies in the city.

Sunday’s attack is the worst in over a year against Pakistan’s Christians, who make up a tiny proportion of the mainly Muslim country.

The Pakistani Taliban’s Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction had claimed the attacks, in a statement emailed to the media.