LAHORE, Aug 9: Various organizations and parties condemned on Friday the grenade attack on a Taxila missionary hospital earlier in the day that killed and injured innocent people.

Bishop of Lahore and Peace, Justice and Human Rights Commission of the Church of Pakistan Chairman Dr Alexander John Malik condemned the terrorist attack and expressed what he said the anguish and anxiety of the Christian community.

He said how tragic and shameful it was that a hospital serving the people of Pakistan without the distinction of cast, colour and creed for the past 150 years should have made a target. This was the second incident in a month, the earlier on a Christian school in Murree, he said.

Dr Malik said the attackers were neither the friends of Pakistan nor of humanity, and such attempts were to destabilize Pakistan from within.

He said frequent recurrence of such incidents was a reflection on the performance of law enforcing agencies. He urged the government to arrest the culprits and beef up security of the Christian institutions, expressing solidarity with the families of the victims and praying for all those in grief and pain.

Bishop Samuel Azariah, Presiding Bishop for the Church of Pakistan and Pakistan Christian National Party Secretary-General Joseph Francis condemned the attack and said this was the second attack in four days which had increased the sense of insecurity among minorities.

They said such inhuman acts of cowardice on fellow non-Muslim citizens would not resolve the international problems but instead undermine the attempts being made for reconciliation and promotion of social harmony.

They said the non-Muslims were a sacred responsibility of the Muslim majority as per the teachings of Islam. A Muslim not adhering to the teachings of the Holy Quran and the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) in treating the minorities right could not claim to call himself a Muslim.

They said such individuals were anti-state and anti-Islam. The government under no circumstances should spare such individuals and groups who were at war with Pakistan.

The bishop said the religious leaders and parties in Pakistan, both Muslim and non-Muslims should come forward to play a vital role in bringing about social and religious harmony.

Also the religious leaders should not only condemn such attacks but also stop injecting fundamental and sectarian values among the common people of Pakistan, he said, reiterating his demand regarding the protection of the rights of the people of Palestine and Afghanistan.

QAZI HUSSAIN AHMAD: Meanwhile, in a statement, Jamaat-i-Islami Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmad said those who attacked the hospital wanted to create a chaos in the country. The entire world was being turned against Islam and Pakistan through such instigating activities, he said.