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October 9, 2002
Pakistani president condemns massacre of justice and peace staff
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNS) — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has condemned the massacre of staff at an ecumenical justice and peace office in Karachi, declaring it was no way to promote Islam.
"I condemn in the strongest terms and regret as a shame for Pakistan the act of wanton terrorism and fanaticism" against the Committee for Justice and Peace, Musharraf said Sept. 28 in Islamabad. His remarks were reported by UCA News, an Asian Church news agency based in Thailand.
The Committee for Justice and Peace is run by the Karachi Archdiocese and the Church of Pakistan, a Protestant church.
Two gunmen entered the committee's Karachi office Sept. 25 and shot dead six Catholics and one Protestant; two others were injured.
"I am sure that Islam and Allah will not forget the fanatics," Musharraf said. "It will be madness if any Muslim thinks that to promote Islam (one) should start killing Christians. Allah (God) will never do this."
He said Islam should be promoted through human progress "rather than the elimination of people of other religions."
"This uneducated attitude and view is regrettable," Musharraf said.
He noted that the range of possible suspects was wide, speculating that it could be members of India's intelligence agency or al Qaeda, the terrorist group headed by Osama bin Laden, suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
Meanwhile, in a Sept. 25 statement, members of the committee's executive board urged the government to come up with a policy that discourages religious extremism, "proactively" seeks out and identifies terrorists, and tackles terrorism at its roots.
The authorities' nonchalant attitude, reluctance to implement the law, and in some cases active support of extremists encourage sectarianism, religious hatred and terrorism, committee officials said. They also demanded that the government pay immediate compensation to families of victims of the recent attack.
In a separate communication to Musharraf and the governor of Sindh province, committee chairwoman Sarah Ivan described the attack as part of a systematic drive by extremist groups to terrorize Christian institutions in the country.
She said the recent incident was part of a chain of attacks against Christians in Bahawalpur, Islamabad, Murree and Taxila that took place after the May "brutal killing" of Ivan Edwin, the committee's former chairman.
Edwin was found bound and poisoned in his office after he claimed some political elements were trying to manipulate the situation for political gain in the election.
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