PESHAWAR, Pakistan | Sun Sep 22, 2013 3:53am EDT
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomb attack on a church in the Pakistani city of Peshawar killed at least 10 people as parishioners left the building after attending Sunday mass, police said.
"After the service ended, people started to come out and the suicide bomber rushed towards them," said Najeeb Bogvi, a senior police officer in Peshawar.
A hospital spokesman said 40 people had been wounded. He confirmed at least 10 people were killed in the explosion at the gate of the church in a densely populated area near a market.
Christians make up about four percent of Pakistan's population of 180 million and tend to keep a low profile in a country where Islamist militants frequently bomb targets they see as heretical, including Christians and Shi'ites.
In 2009, 40 houses and a church were set ablaze by a mob of 1,000 Muslims in the town of Gojra in Punjab province. At least seven Christians were burnt to death. The attacks were triggered by reports of the desecration of the Koran.
(Reporting by Hameedullah Khan and Syed Raza Hassan, Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Robert Birsel)
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomb attack on a church in the Pakistani city of Peshawar killed at least 10 people as parishioners left the building after attending Sunday mass, police said.
"After the service ended, people started to come out and the suicide bomber rushed towards them," said Najeeb Bogvi, a senior police officer in Peshawar.
A hospital spokesman said 40 people had been wounded. He confirmed at least 10 people were killed in the explosion at the gate of the church in a densely populated area near a market.
Christians make up about four percent of Pakistan's population of 180 million and tend to keep a low profile in a country where Islamist militants frequently bomb targets they see as heretical, including Christians and Shi'ites.
In 2009, 40 houses and a church were set ablaze by a mob of 1,000 Muslims in the town of Gojra in Punjab province. At least seven Christians were burnt to death. The attacks were triggered by reports of the desecration of the Koran.
(Reporting by Hameedullah Khan and Syed Raza Hassan, Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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