Ash-har Quraishi: Gruesome scene at Pakistan church

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Five people, including two Americans, were killed and more than 40 others wounded Sunday in a grenade attack at a church in Islamabad, Pakistan.

CNN Correspondent Ash-har Quraishi surveyed the unsettling scene inside the church and reported the following from Islamabad:

QURAISHI: The attack occurred just after 10 a.m. local time in the Protestant International Church in Islamabad. Now, that's located in a diplomatic area considered to be very safe.

Two attackers apparently entered the church as services were being carried out there and threw a number of grenades at parishioners inside the church. Two of those detonated inside the church, injuring approximately 40 people and killing five.

Local authorities in coordination with the government officials that we've spoken to say that they've deployed military aid and crisis management teams as well as the various embassies involved.

Now, this is a church that is predominantly attended by diplomats, their families, children. And the injured that were from the church were taken to various hospitals.

Just a little while ago, we were allowed to go inside the church and see what had happened in there. A gruesome sight -- broken glass all over the place, chairs upturned. Inside the church where the services were being held, where it's believed that the grenades were detonated, blood on the floors, blood on the curtains as well as on the ceiling, which was about 30 feet high. It was a gruesome sight.

Investigators are still looking into who may have done this. There's been no claim of responsibility at this point. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf offered his condolences to the families of those killed and those injured, saying that he is ordering the launch of a coordinated hunt to find the perpetrators of this attack, saying that these people are no friends of Pakistan.

CNN: This is a diplomatic area near the U.S. Embassy. How tight is security there and how many police officers are evident on a typical day? And how difficult would it be to stage an attack like this?

QURAISHI: Well, this is supposed to be one of the safest areas in Pakistan. The U.S. Embassy, as you said, is there. There are other various embassies there. The Chinese Embassy is there. This church, however, which is about 300 meters from the U.S. Embassy, has about three entrances.

Now, even having those three entrances, security is not very tight at this church as it would be expected to be. One guard, as we understand it, was there at the church, but apparently not enough people to guard the other two doors where these attackers entered from.

So it's supposed to be a safe area. It's considered a safe area. But apparently, guard was left down, and the attackers were able to strike.

This attack has done more to motivate me against Islamic fundamentalists than any of the attacks in Israel. In Israel, they have their reasons--they're wrong, but they have reasons. What was the point of this attack? What did it hope to accomplish?

Looking at the photographs of the aftermath, the victims--it looks no different than the attacks in Israel. The Muslim terrorists don't care about political grievances, they don't care about the peace process. They don't care about guilt or innocence. The only thing that matters to them is killing non-Muslims.

The terrorists cannot be reasoned with. They can only be destroyed.

Not to be completely off subject of my own post....

How is Israel wrong? Taking over what is not theirs is not so good, but in the bigger picture all they want is their promised land back. Sure, in many Christians' eyes they are unfounded, but I would do the exact same thing if someone tried to attack the Vatican. It's their beliefs and hopes they are fighting for, just I would and do for the American dream.

I say rock on, Israel. Rock on.

An injured diplomat is wheeled into a local hospital in Islamabad after a grenade attack inside a church in the diplomatic enclave of the Pakistani capital on March 17, 2002. Two Americans were among at least five people killed in a grenade attack during a Sunday service at a Protestant church packed with foreigners in Pakistan's capital Islamabad, a U.S. diplomat said. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood BEST AVAILABLE QUALITY

A Pakistan army soldier guards the front of a Protestant church in Islamabad, Pakistan, after two attackers hurled grenades at worshippers Sunday, March 17, 2002. Five people were killed, including two Americans and about 45 were wounded in the attack, police and U.S. officials said. (AP Photo/Tariq Aziz)

Grenade attack victims from a Protestant church are treated at a local hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, March 17, 2002. At least one unidentified attackers hurled grenades into the church filled with Sunday worshipers, killing five people and wounding 45, police said. (AP Photo/B.K.Bangash)

Suicide bombing victims Sofia Eliau, left, and her son Jacob Avraham Eliau, right, are seen in an undated family handout. The two were buried at a cemetery near the Israeli town of Kiryat Gat Sunday March 3, 2002. A suicide bombing in a crowded ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem Saturday night, by a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, killed nine Israelis and wounded dozens. (AP Photo) ISRAEL OUT

An Israeli policeman searches the scene of a suicide bombing in Jerusalem March 2, 2002. At least nine people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem on Saturday, Israeli police said. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack, in the Beit Israel area of Jerusalem. REUTERS/Gil Cohen Magen

Police investigate the scene of a suicide bomb in a shopping mall in the Karnei Shomron settlement February 16, 2002. A Palestinian suicide bomber killed two Israelis in the Jewish settlement in the West Bank and militants fired more rockets into Israel on Saturday as a wave of violence swept aside the latest European peace mission. REUTERS/Nir Elias

What's the difference? There is none.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.