ISLAMABAD, March 18: United States Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca arrived unscheduled here on Monday to accompany home the bodies of two US victims of an attack on an Islamabad church on Sunday.

Ms Rocca cancelled her scheduled meetings in New Delhi to fly to Pakistan, which was not originally included in her current trip through South Asia.

Ms Rocca visited Americans wounded in the church attack. She was accompanied by Information Minister Nisar Memon and US Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin as she visited five to six Americans recovering in Al-Shifa International Hospital.

“In order to accompany the fallen in Islamabad back to the United States, given this tragedy, I am curtailing my visit to India and proceeding at once to Pakistan,” Ms Rocca said in a statement issued in New Delhi.

“I thank my Indian counterparts for their understanding in this matter.”

Five people died, including a US diplomat’s wife and daughter, when an attacker lobbed grenades inside the church.

Ms Rocca said the “cowardly murders” inside the Protestant church “are yet more evidence of the necessity to continue with the international coalition’s war against terrorism.

“Six months ago the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center slaughtered innocent people from over 80 nations. Sunday’s attack in Islamabad was also against innocent individuals from many countries, this time joined together in prayer.

“We offer our condolences for the victims and their families, even as we renew our efforts to fight terrorists and terrorism for as long as it takes to defeat this evil,” she said.

US officials said they could not say when her trip to India might be rescheduled.

Ms Rocca was the latest in a parade of US visitors to New Delhi seeking to cool tensions between India and Pakistan.

A total of nine Americans were among 46 people, mainly foreigners, wounded in the attack.

The diplomatic corps was locked in talks on further increasing security at gatherings of expatriates.

“We have to expect that they will strike where it hurts most — schools, church services, family gatherings where there are children,” said a diplomat.—Agencies