"The Taliban leaders shouted, 'You infidels have to convert to Islam or die. Why did you wash up warnings inscribed on walls of church and home doors? How dare you to take out procession against Taliban?'"
The terrorists used clubs, iron rods and whips in their attacks, and set homes on fire, ICC said.
"When two Christians resisted, the militants killed them execution-style directly in front of their families. The identity of those killed has not yet been confirmed," ICC said.
A report in AsiaNews said seven suspects were arrested in the attack.
"The Pakistani government has created an opening for terrorists to attack Christians indiscriminately by acceding to their demands in the Swat Valley," said Jeremy Sewall, ICC's director for advocacy.
"Formerly, Christians in the major cities of Pakistan experienced discrimination, but up till now they had not had to fear threats of forced conversion or execution on a wide scale. This attack is a harbinger of worse to come if the Pakistani government continues to cower in the face of Muslim radicals," he said.
The Christians had been protesting because on Monday residents of Taseer Town in Karachi awakened to find pro-Taliban messages chalked onto the walls of two churches.
The message included, “Long Live the Taliban,” “Talibanization is our goal” and “Embrace Islam or Prepare to Die.”
The Christians staged a protest to try to attract the attention of local government officials, but they did not respond, leaving the door open to the physical attack and executions, AsiaNews reported.
According to a report in the Christian Post, Taliban members also burned shops and churches, leaving dozens more injured.
On the Chowk website, which is set up for volunteer reporters to document their experiences, a statement described the attack as “well-organized and [with] heavy firearms.”
“More than 100 masked Taliban intruded in Taseer Colony and attacked Christians with heavy machine guns,” the report said. “They [the attackers] said, ‘You infidels have to convert to Islam or die. … How you dare to take out procession against Taliban?”
The report said the Pakistan Christian Congress already was seeking help from the United Nations in New York.
More information on the ROP the mainstream media will not cover.
The executions need to be blasted across the T.V. just like the so called torture of the Bush Administration is. Maybe people will recognize what torture really is. I want to see the beheading of Daniel Pearl and the 911 people jumping all over the T.V. also. I am sick of this pansy-ass administration.
must be those ‘moderate’ Taliban the ZerO talks about....
Obama’s strategy is working. He didn’t want other people to be afraid of America, and now they’re not.
But most of us are pretty sure where they are located now, may God rest their souls.
Our work in that region still has a long way to go...but will the lunatics governing our nation right now realize that?
I'm not going to hold my breath...
Assaults on Christians in Pakistan is not all that rare where there is law and order.... but when the Taliban Moderates come to town, hold the phone
Coming to a country near you, soon!
Sooner than you think.
Previously...
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2009/s09040131.htm
Friday, April 24, 2009
Pakistani Archbishop Concerned by Sharia Deal
By Jeremy Reynalds
Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
PAKISTAN (ANS) — The Archbishop of Lahore, Lawrence John Saldanha, has written to the prime minister and president of Pakistan over concerns at the implementation of sharia (Islamic) law in the country’s northwest.
In the letter he said, “We note with sorrow that your government has failed to take stock of the concerns of civil society in Pakistan in your decision,” reported UCANews.
According to a story by Anne Thomas writing for Christian Today, the government of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) signed a truce with Taliban militants who had been fighting with government forces for 18 months to implement sharia law.
In his letter, the Archbishop said that the truce jeopardized the socio-economic and cultural growth of the area and gives legal sanction to the “dictates of the trigger-happy Taliban.”
He added that the truce also eroded the constitutional protection of minorities and women.
The Christian Post reported Archbishop Saldanha said that minorities in the area “are forced to endure unemployment, intimidation and migration.”
He added that some Catholic schools and a convent have already been bombed, and that non-Muslim families have fled the area after being told they had to pay a jizia, or a tax for non-Muslims.
The Christian Post reported he finished by saying that “religion has to be regarded as a personal matter and should have nothing to do with the affairs of state.”
Other Christians in Pakistan have also spoken out against the Taliban takeover, the Christian Post reported.
Prince Javed, a Christian member of the NWFP assembly, said “We are still unclear how qazi (sharia) courts would affect the Christians of these regions.” He added that only the constitution could protect minority rights.
The Christian Post reported that one Christian in the capital of the NWFP, Peshawar, said that the city’s only Catholic church had been forced to cancel its Easter and Christmas celebrations for fear of the Taliban.
Local Taliban spokesman, Muslim Khan, has been quoted as saying that the group is not under the Pakistani constitution, but only follows sharia law.