KARACHI, Pakistan — Karachi police announced the arrest of three Islamist militants who have reportedly confessed to the unsolved murders of seven Pakistani Christians in September 2002. A fourth suspect and alleged ringleader of the group, identified only by his first name Wajahat, remains at large. The arrests reportedly came through a tip-off after the Feb. 15 arrest of 10 members of the same terrorist group, Tehrik-e-Islami Lashker-e-Mohammedi. Police officers said this was "a new and lesser known" group "formed to target missionaries propagating their beliefs in Pakistan, and particularly in Karachi."
The arrests come more than five years after the execution-style shooting of seven Christians at the Karachi headquarters of one of Pakistan’s oldest church-sponsored charities. The seven Christians were tied up, gagged and then shot in the head at the Institute for Peace and Justice office in Karachi’s Rimpa Plaza on the morning of Sept. 25, 2002.
Instead of apprehending the culprits in what was clearly "an organized violent attack" against the nation’s religious minorities, church representatives have stressed that some police officials had harassed the bereaved families and spread false rumors to implicate local Christians for the tragedy.
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