SECURITY forces were on high alert across the country yesterday, after a suicide attack on a Christian church by Daesh that killed nine people.
Sunday’s assault in Quetta, the capital of south-western Baluchistan province, also wounded about 60 worshippers.
It was the first attack on a church claimed by the Daesh affiliate in Pakistan.
Mass funerals of those killed in the attack were to be held in Quetta later yesterday. The provincial police chief, Moazzam Ansari, said security forces were hunting those behind the atrocity.
About 400 worshippers were attending the service when two bombers carrying assault rifles entered the church, triggering a gun battle in which one assailant was killed by police guards and the other opened fire at worshippers and detonated his explosives vest.
The Daesh affiliate claimed responsibility for the attack and, in a second statement posted on outlets of Aamaq news, added that two Daesh “martyrdom-seeking fighters clad in explosive vests and carrying machine guns and hand grenades attacked the church”.
One of the attackers detonated his vest among the “Crusaders while the other was killed in a clash with the renegade Pakistani security forces”, it said.
Daesh has claimed several attacks in Pakistan in recent years though Islamabad denies the group’s presence and claims it has no network in the country.
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