TAXILA, Aug 15: Thousands of Pakistani Christians observed a ‘Black Day’ of mourning on Thursday for the victims a chain of attacks on Christians, saying they are bearing the brunt of militant fury at Pakistani’s support of the US-led war on terror.

“We have selected this day as a symbol of protest against the ongoing attacks against Christians,” Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian rights activist who heads the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, told AFP.

Christians marched in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta to protest against the violence and to call for tighter protection of their churches, schools and people. Rallies were forbidden in Islamabad because authorities deemed it a security risk.

Eight attacks on Christians and Westerners since October have claimed 59 lives, 43 of them Pakistanis. Some 200 hospital staff and relatives held a memorial service at the Taxila Christian Hospital on Thursday for the latest victims.

Bandaged and wheelchair-bound survivors of last Friday’s attack prayed, wept and sang in the hospital chapel, whose windows were still splintered by the blasts from grenades hurled by three militants at worshippers as they emerged from a morning prayer service.

“Let us give thanks for the gift of life for all those who were not hurt in Friday’s terrorist attack,” said Reverend Alla Ahrasi, leading the service. “Let us also pray for the three terrorists and that they may repent and feel sorry for this act.”

Stunned Christian leaders, expressing their congregations’ vulnerability, have said they are being blamed for Islamabad’s alliance with Washington.

“This is clearly retaliation by the Al Qaeda and Taliban,” Bhatti told AFP.

“These militants want to kill our people because it is easier for them to attack the innocent rather than the US-led forces in Afghanistan,”