The attack on All Saints church in the northwestern city of 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.
after a service on Sunday is believed to be the deadliest ever to target Pakistain's small Christian minority.
Christians demonstrated in towns and cities around Pakistain, including Islamabad, Lahore, Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
and Peshawar to protest against the violence and demand the authorities do more to protect them.
A Mohammedan man was killed in Karachi when scuffles broke out at a Christian protest outside a mosque, police said.
More than 600 protesters blocked a major highway in Islamabad for several hours during the Monday morning rush hour, burning tyres and causing long tailbacks, an AFP photographer said.
Later around 2,000 people gathered to protest outside parliament.
In Peshawar, around 200 demonstrators erupted into the streets, smashing windows at the main Lady Reading hospital, where many of the victims were treated, and blocking the main Grand Trunk road.
In front of All Saints church, more than 100 people rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud demanding justice and attacking the national government for failing to protect Christians.
And they had harsh words for cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan
... aka
Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight...
, whose Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is
Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
(PTI) party runs the provincial government in northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
province.
Protesters shouted abusive slogans against the cricketer turned politician, including chants of "Imran is a dog".
"Imran Khan and his senior deputy have failed to protect Christians at their praying centres," Khalid Shahzad, who lost five family members in the attack, told AFP.
"The government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Imran Khan are just making slogans, there is nothing practical (to protect us). They do not have any sympathy for minorities."
The corpse count from the blasts rose to 82 on Monday, according to medics, with around 130 in total maimed.
Senior Peshawar police official Najeeb-ur-Rehman said security around churches in the city would be stepped up, but survivors of the bombing spoke of their fears of further violence.
"We had very good relations with the Mohammedans -- there was no tension before that blast, but we fear that this is the beginning of a wave of violence against the Christians," Danish Yunas, a Christian driver maimed in the blast, told AFP.
The small and largely impoverished Christian community suffers discrimination in the overwhelmingly Mohammedan-majority nation but bombings against them are extremely rare.
The 400 or so worshippers were exchanging greetings after the service when the bombers struck, littering the church with blood, body parts and pages from the Bible.
The walls were pockmarked with ball bearings that had been packed into the bombs to cause maximum carnage in the busy church.
Sectarian violence between majority Sunni and minority Shiite Mohammedans is on the rise in Pakistain but Sunday's bombings will fuel fears the already beleaguered Christian community could be increasingly targeted.
A faction linked to the Pak Taliban on Sunday claimed the attack, saying it was to avenge US drone strikes on Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives in the country's tribal areas along the Afghan border.
But on Monday the main front man for the umbrella Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) group said they were not responsible.
"We haven't done this nor do we attack innocent people," Shahidullah Shahid, the main TTP front man told AFP by telephone from
"Whenever we carry out an attack we claim it, but the Taliban are not involved in this attack. It was an attempt to sabotage the atmosphere of the proposed peace talks."
Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
has called several times for peace talks with the Taliban and two weeks ago won backing from the country's main political parties.
But speaking in London late on Sunday he said the government was "unable to proceed further" with talks in the wake of the church attack.
Only around two percent of the Pakistain's 180 million population are Christian and the community complains of growing discrimination.
Pak Christians often lead a precarious existence, many living in slum-like "colonies" cheek-by-jowl with Mohammedans and fearful of allegations of blasphemy, a sensitive subject that can provoke outbursts of public violence.
In the town of Gojra in Punjab province in 2009, a mob burned 77 houses and killed seven people after rumours that a copy of the Koran had been desecrated during a Christian marriage ceremony.
Rimsha Masih, a Christian girl who was tossed in the calaboose
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
for alleged blasphemy last year, fled to Canada with her family in June after the charges were dropped.