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3 killed in Pak. church attack

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD Aug. 9. In yet another terrorist strike in Pakistan, three unidentified persons hurled grenades at women leaving a church in the vicinity of a missionary hospital in the Taxila town, 40 km from here, killing three nurses and injuring about 25 persons. The nurses were Pakistanis. The condition of ten of the injured is stated to be serious.

This is the second strike against Christian or Western targets in a span of four days and fourth since the U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. It is seen as the handiwork of remnants of the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban who have launched a terror campaign in Pakistan.

Reports from Taxila said the attack took place around 7.35 a.m. and one of the attackers died on the grounds of the hospital as a grenade exploded in his hand. Today's attack came exactly four days after the incident at a missionary school for foreign students in Murree in which six Pakistanis perished in the attack as three militants opened indiscriminate firing in a bid to gain entry into the school.

Islamabad feels that the perpetrators of the attack could be linked to the terrorist strike on the school in Murree. "It is clear that the terrorists are targeting the Christian community in Pakistan,'' S.K. Tressler, the Minister in-charge of Minority Affairs, said.

The series of terror attack in Pakistan in the last few weeks clearly indicate the nature of the challenge faced by the Musharraf Government from the fundamentalists who have been opposing his decision to support the U.S.-led coalition against international terrorism.

Besides the attack in Taxila, the military government has reasons to be worried over the incident in the capital of Baluchistan, Quetta, in which a senior Army officer was shot and wounded in a suspected sectarian attack. It is for the first time that a military officer has become the target of such an attack.

Reports said that two unidentified assailants opened fire on the car of Brig. Bartar Hussain Naqvi, who is an official of the National Database and Registration Authority, while he was on his way to his office. He has been admitted in the military hospital with bullet injuries in the shoulder.

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