KARACHI: Not just Christians but Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs also came out Monday to protest the bomb attacks near two churches in Lahore’s Youhannabad area a day earlier.

Showing solidarity with the Christian community outside the Karachi Press Club, Allama Siddiq Ahsan said they should all unite and raise their voice together to make it clear to the world that “we are one”. “Pakistan belongs to all of us. We take ownership of all the places of worship in this land of ours, be it mosques, imambargahs, churches or temples,” he said.

Also read: 15 killed in Taliban attack on Lahore churches

Zafar Abbas of the Civil Society Against Terrorism lamented that on the 16th of the month they were mourning the deaths of the Youhannabad churches victims besides those killed in the Peshawar school tragedy and the imambargahs bomb blasts of Rawalpindi and Shikarpur.

In a message, patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Hindu Council and member of the National Assembly Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani termed the attack an act of cowardice and prayed for operation Zarb-i-Azb’s success. He also called for the immediate preparation and implementation of the Security Plan for minority worship places as per orders of the Supreme Court for the protection of minorities across the country. “Terrorists being defeated by the brave armed forces are trying to prove their existence through such cowardly acts,” he said.

Father Mario Rodrigues of the St Patrick’s parish said that people from all religions needed to work together for the country to prosper. “We are all like one family here and this family has come out to protest so that we can raise awareness of what the terrorists are doing, trying to break us up,” he said.

The crowd gathered on the occasion chanted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ amid other slogans for ending terrorism, unity among all faiths and ‘Pakistan is our identity’. They said that raising walls of schools after the Army Public School tragedy and increasing security at airports or putting barriers in front of places of worship was no solution. Acceptance and tolerance for each other’s faith and beliefs was stressed.

Archbishop of Karachi Most Reverend Joseph Coutts, while thanking everyone, said that seeing so many people of other faiths joining them in the protest had made Christians feel that they were not in minority in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2015

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