TAXILA, Pakistan — Three Pakistani Christian nurses were killed Aug. 9 when attackers lobbed two grenades at a crowd of women leaving a missionary hospital chapel in Taxila, Pakistan, about 12 miles from the capital city of Islamabad.
It was the second attack on a Christian target in Pakistan in less than a week.
On Aug. 5, masked gunmen stormed the campus of a Christian missionary boarding school in Murree, killing six Pakistanis and wounding two others. None of the students were hurt.
In the hospital attack, witnesses said 23 people, mostly female nurses, were injured and two were in critical condition.
Police at the scene told Reuters that three men had been waiting by the hospital gates for the daily morning worship service to end before they struck.
Minister for Information Nisar Memon called the killings “a sinister attempt to drive a wedge between the Muslim and Christian communities of Pakistan.”
Officials say they believe the stepped up attacks on Christian and Western institutions are coming from Islamic militants angered by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
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