Sunday's twin bombings struck in quick succession in the Christian neighborhood of Youhanabad during morning services. The bombers detonated their boom jackets outside the two churches, about 600 meters apart. At least 70 people were maimed in the attacks, the latest assault on religious minorities in this increasingly fractured country.
After the attacks, angry Christian mobs blocked the highway, ransacked bus terminals and burned two people to death who they suspected of being involved in the bombings. Christian demonstrators also blocked roads Monday in the eastern cities of Faisalabad
...formerly known as Lyallpur, the third largest metropolis in Pakistain, the second largest in Punjab after Lahore. It is named after some Arab because the Paks didn't have anybody notable of their own to name it after...
, Sargodha and Gujranwala.
In Lahore, they blocked a major highway that runs near the two targeted churches and forced public transport services to shut down. They later pelted the police with stones and smashed police cars and other vehicles, according to Rana Sanaullah, an official with the ruling PML-N party. He said officers were trying to calm down the situation.
Lahore's Police Deputy Inspector General Haider Ashraf told news hounds that his men were "showing restraint" but had to fire tear gas canisters when the situation deteriorated. The city Commissioner Abdullah Sumbal Khan said Pak paramilitary troops had been called in to restore order.
A least one protester died after being hit by a car, Ashraf said. Local television stations aired footage showing the car speeding away from the scene after hitting several protesters.
Ashraf put the total corpse count from Sunday's bombings at 17, after two of maimed later died in the hospital.
Christian schools remained closed as prayer services and funerals for the bombing victims took place, said Shipping and Ports Minister Kamran Michael, a prominent Christian community leader.
Also Monday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan
...
Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz Uncle FesterSharif. He is noted for his vocal anti-American railing in the National Assembly. However (comma) Khan told the U.S. ambassador that he was in fact pro-American but he and the PML-N would have to be critical of US actions in order to remain
publicly credible. Khan cited his wife and children's US citizenship as proof, which means he's lying to one side or the other and probably both. He wears a wig, but you probably guessed that. since hair doesn't grow naturally in that shape or texture...
denounced the church attacks as an "inhuman act of terrorism" and said it reflected the bully boys' "frustration" in the face of a stepped-up military operation against them. Last June, Pakistain launched a major operation to rout turbans from their strongholds.
"We have shrunk the space for them to operate," Khan said Monday.
Life in Pakistain is increasingly dangerous for religious minorities. They have been targeted by turban Sunni Moslem turbans and are also discriminated against in the wider society, where they are often limited to menial jobs like garbage collection.
Much of the country is already on edge after years of bully boy violence, including an attack on a Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
school in December that killed 150 people -- mostly students.
The Pak Taliban group, which grabbed credit for the church attacks, has been waging an insurgency for over a decade, seeking to overthrow the government and install their own brand of fundamentalist Islamic rule. Thousands of Paks have been killed in the attacks.