Six killed in massacre at Christian school in Pakistan

AFP ^ | Monday August 5, 11:20 PM | AFP via Yahoo!

[Destro]

Monday August 5, 11:20 PM

Six killed in massacre at Christian school in Pakistan

Gunmen opened fire on a Christian school for mainly foreign pupils in northern Pakistan, killing six Pakistanis but no students in the sixth attack on foreign targets this year.

The dead included two guards, a cook, and a passer-by, police and school employees said Monday.

Four people were wounded including the Filipina mother of a student, who was the only foreigner hurt.

The attack is the latest in a string of deadly strikes on foreigners, but the first time a school has been targetted.

Foreign embassies have warned that schools could be a target of militant attacks, and most expatriate schools in Pakistan have closed down in the wake of the violence that has claimed French, American and Pakistani lives.

The Murree Christian School is attended by around 130 students from Australia, Britain, Finland, Germany, South Korea, New Zealand, the Philippines, Sweden, and the United States, as well as Pakistan.

Police and witnesses said a band of assailants, three of them masked, burst into the school's main compound just outside the town of Murree, a colonial-era hill resort town 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of the capital, Islamabad, at 11:15 am (0515 GMT).

"Four to five men attacked the school, then fled into the forest," Murree-based police officer Maqbool told AFP.

Around 110 students were in class when the attackers jumped out of a car and stormed the brick-walled compound, a staff member told AFP declining to be named.

The school's director, Australian Russel Morton, said the attackers gunned down private security guards at the front gate, then tried to barge into a room filled with terrified foreign pupils and teachers.

The guards, both Muslims, "resisted very strongly", but were killed in the shootout, he said.

Spraying bullets indiscriminately, the attackers then barged into the compound's main building.

"The attackers wanted to enter into a room which was occupied mostly by foreigners," he said. They tried to break open its door while continuing their shooting spree.

A policeman on duty at the school opened fire on the gunmen and they fled. The attackers had fired on him but left him for dead when he fell down, he said.

"But I got up again and fired four or five shots at them," he told AFP.

"The gunmen scaled the outer wall and escaped."

The school had employed private security guards as well as the police officer for extra security, staff member Larry Cutherell said.

Morton condemned the attack as an attempt to harm Pakistan.

"This is against the interests of Pakistan as parents of these children are serving in this country," he said.

Relatives took away the bodies, covered in white shrouds, later Monday as soldiers cordoned off the school's sprawling grounds. All except one of the dead were locals of Murree.

The wounded were transported to hospitals in Islamabad.

Nestled in the pine forest-clad foothills of the lower Himalayas, Murree lies 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir.

[troublesome creek]

Just more coming attractions of a scene that will be replayed "in a theater near you". If we don't make some serious pre-emptive strikes against this "peaceful" belief system, this same thing will be happening closer and closer to home. It is past time for a little jihad of our own.

[Mixer]

"The attackers wanted to enter into a room which was occupied mostly by foreigners,"

I guess with this and the attack on the school on Israel they are really trying to send a strong mesage.

[tomahawk]

Jihadist devils doing what comes natural to them, killing innocent people.

[nonliberal]

More zany antics from the friendly practitioners of Islam.

[reagan_fanatic]

Nothing to see here, just Christians.

Move along, move along...

(/sarcasm)

[Stultis]

Nothing to see here, just Christians.

Actually, no, not just, not even mostly, even though they were the targets. E.g.:

The guards, both Muslims, "resisted very strongly", but were killed in the shootout, [Director Morton] said.

Additionaly the policeman who eventually drove the attackers off, after he had already been fired on, was a local and most probably a Muslim.

There are a lot of brave folks in Pakistan doing their very best to hold things together under difficult and sometimes savage circumstances. Hope you're including them in your prayers also.

[monday]

"The Murree Christian School is attended by around 130 students from Australia, Britain, Finland, Germany, South Korea, New Zealand, the Philippines, Sweden, and the United States, as well as Pakistan. "

Wonder what their parents are doing in Pakistan that is so important as to put their childrens lives at risk?

I can understand risking ones own life for adventure or money, but I would never endanger my own children. One wonders if they love their children?

[Free the USA]

Index Bump

[Malacoda]

This massacree brought to you by the letters "F" and "U," and the number (AK)-47."

Ah, Islam -- the religion of tolerance and peace.

[OBAFGKM]

I can understand risking ones own life for adventure or money, but I would never endanger my own children. One wonders if they love their children?

It took about 2 minutes to find the Murree Christian School website and find out what they are doing there. As usual, the gratuitous, knee-jerk, self-righteous, anti-Islamic slander on this thread and similar threads is way off the mark.

The following is a news item from their site. Sounds to me as though they get along just fine with their Muslim friends and neighbors:

	Press release from Murree Christian School
			05/08/2002 Press release from Murree Christian School 05/08/2002 MCS ATTACKED 09/07/2002 Year ends on positive note
	Shortly after morning break, masked and armed men forced their way into the main school campus and over the next 10 to 15 minutes fired indiscriminately before making their escape over the fence at the rear of the property. The area has been fully secured by army and police personnel. It is a matter of thanks to God that no students were injured in any way and that no expatriate staff were injured. Students are all safe and being cared for by parents or guardians. The cost to the community, however, has been very high. Two hired security guards, a cook, our reception clerk, a hired carpenter and a bystander all died in the attack. Three people were wounded directly including a Pakistani cleaning staff member, a neighbour and a missionary parent who sustained a gunshot to one hand. Other injuries were sustained by national staff running to escape the attackers. The school has cancelled classes, initially for 24 hours, and has set up three counselling teams for students, national staff and expatriate staff. The Board of Directors and school management team will hold a joint meeting late tomorrow to discuss the immediate future. We ask for earnest and sustained prayer at this time from Christian people everywhere, and are grateful for the support we have received from our Muslim neighbours and from the Authorities. Murree Christian School is a boarding school in the Himalayan foothills. It was established in 1956 to provide western education principally for the children of people serving Pakistan in Christian missions offering medical, educational, agricultural and community building services across the country. The school has an enrolment of 150 from kindergarten to Grade 12, with some 35 teaching and boarding care staff from western countries. Students are drawn from some 20 countries from both hemispheres and both sides of the Atlantic. The school enjoys the warm support of the local community and has alumni scattered through the world.

Test

[knighthawk]

Religion of peace strikes again-list

If people want on or off this list, please let me know.

[VOA]

thanks for the ping!
Suprisingly the liberal Los Angeles Times had a front-page (and substantive) story
about the death/life penalty for blasphemy against Islam and/or Islamic figures.

This legally-sanctioned fatwah didn't shock me as much as learning that about
10% of Pakistan is...Christian!
I thought I'd heard that there weren't but a sprinkling of Christians in Pakistan.

Hmmm...maybe that's the reason for the blasphemy laws...the Islamic majority
feels like they are losing their grip.

[knighthawk]

Pakistan does not fear minorities of other believes. As a matter of fact they have a way of dealing with them, just like they did in 1971 in Bangladesh:

Genocide in Bangladesh, 1971

[crystalk]

It is not correct, of course, that 10% of the Pakistan population is Christian. Would that it were, then that country would no longer be one of the world's leading threats to peace.

Pakistan has barely 2 million Christians out of a population some say is nearing 200 million, certainly at least 150 million.

I would thus estimate to you that fewer than 1.2% of Pakistan's population is Christian.

By the way, the same source estimates that there are 20 million open Christians and 20 million home-church members in living rooms, across India, out of a population there put by same source at 1.2 Billion!

That would indicate some 1.7 to 3.3% Christian in India, not enough but better than Pakistan.

BTW same source suggests that one-ninth of the total population in CHINA says that it is Christian, even though state and church formal organizations show far fewer. If the one-ninth figure is correct, and we could think there were 1.8 Billion people there, this would indicate 200 million Christians and would raise the question as to whether this is more than in any other one nation on Earth, including USA, Russia, Brazil, Mexico etc.

[Hamza01]

Wasn't it Muslim guards who died protecting these kids?

[knighthawk]

Forgot to ping you!

[SandfleaCSC]

Thanks for the ping.

Christianity has a funny way of gaining followers and strength when under deadly oppression. Ask the Romans, Chinese, or the Indonesians. I hope that school reopens ASAP and shows the Islamics that faith, strength, and hope of Christianity beats the murder, death, and oppression of Mohammedians any day.

[Travis McGee]

Good points Stultis.