Judicial inquiry sought into church attacks

The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) has threatened to launch nationwide protests if the government fails to arrest within 24 hours those who attacked three churches and torched convent schools in the Sangla Hill town of Punjab on Saturday.

Addressing a news conference in Lahore, Shahbaz Bhatti, APMA chairman, demanded a judicial inquiry commission headed by a Supreme Court judge to record statements of the people who witnessed the arson attacks.

Bhatti said the government had failed to provide security to the minorities and both the president and the prime minister should have condemned the incident in the strongest words besides ordering an immediate inquiry.

He termed the attack as sectarian terrorism and said some anti-social elements were bent upon breaking the Christian-Muslim unity in Pakistan.

Bhatti alleged the assailants were Muslim students and if the government failed to take prompt action, they could launch similar attacks in other parts of the country also.