LAHORE, Pakistan — A mass suicide attack in Lahore, Pakistan, claimed the lives of at least 70 Christians and children on Easter by the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar terror group. The group claimed responsibility for the attack and admitted it targeted Christians.
At least 300 others were injured in a bomb blast near a children’s playground while the minority Christian population was celebrating Easter, according to BBC News.
The “suicide bombing in Pakistan, which was specifically targeted at Christians celebrating the Easter holiday, is one of the countless examples of the escalating global persecution against Christians,” Open Doors USA President and CEO David Curry said in a statement.
“Countering the kind of terrorism we saw … in Pakistan will take strong leadership and skilled diplomacy from the United States with other like-minded nations. Together, we must speak out against religious persecution wherever it may be found,” Curry said.
Pakistani officials said they are searching for the extremists who could have been involved in the attack.
Pakistani’s Christian population has suffered heavy persecution in the last few years, including a deadly bomb blast at a Peshawar church in 2013 where more than 80 people were killed, according to Christianity Today.
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