Mags Gargan
“The security situation now seems out of control and people are forced to live in an atmosphere of fear”
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Irish missionaries working with the beleaguered Christian minority in Pakistan have said a recent upsurge in violence has heightened fears and left the community extremely vulnerable.
At least 72 people were killed and over 300 injured in a suicide explosion in the city of Lahore on Sunday. A Taliban splinter group said it carried out the attack specifically to target Christian families celebrating Easter at a fair.
Columban Fr Joe Joyce SSC, who is based just one kilometre from the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park where the blast occurred, told The Irish Catholic that the “Christian community feel targeted”.
“There is a great deal of sadness and anger among the Christians and in one sense a fatalistic attitude because people don’t know what to do. They have tried everything. They have followed government regulations about putting up security measures around schools and churches, so that is why the extremists chose a park where families were on an outing. It’s hard to believe that a human being could stand there with a bomb and wait for people to gather to kill women and children. It is certainly evil.”
Originally from Co. Offaly, Fr Joyce has worked in Pakistan since the 1980s and said he would not consider leaving despite the upsurge in anti-Christian violence. “We have been living with this for quite a while and life goes on,” he said.
Dark day
Wexford priest Fr Liam O’Callaghan SSC recently moved from Lahore to Hyderabad in the Sindh province. He described the suicide attack on Easter Sunday as “another dark day for Pakistan” and said that “the message of Easter is hard to keep alive in such a situation”. “The security situation now seems out of control and people are forced to live in an atmosphere of fear, with no real hope of any change,” he said.
A fellow Columban in Sindh Province, Fr Tomás King, described the attack as “very tragic” and “incomprehensible”.
The Galway man said families at the park were a “soft target” and the bombing had increased fear among Christians and “other minorities who have also been targeted”.
Safe
There are five Columban priests, three students and four sisters working in Pakistan. Regional Director in Ireland, Fr Pat Raleigh, told The Irish Catholic all the Columbans have been reported as safe. Fr Raleigh, who worked in Pakistan for 11 years, said Easter Sunday should be a day of joy for Christians in Pakistan. “After long ceremonies many Christians go out for the day in the park dressed in their best finery and enjoy a picnic.
“This will have repercussions and leave the Christian community there very frightened and full of anxiety,” he said.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a Sunni group that broke away from the Taliban in 2014, has vowed to step up violence against Christians.