Pakistan militants kill three nurses after launching grenade attack on churchgoers

Attackers hurled grenades at a church in the grounds of a Christian hospital in north-west Pakistan yesterday, killing three nurses and wounding 26 people.

The attack in Taxila was the second this week against Christians in Pakistan. The grenades were thrown as women led worshippers from an early morning service. The Pakistani nurses died instantly.

Barkat Masih, a hospital worker attending the service who was wounded by shrapnel, described the blast. "I thought a gigantic bolt of lightning had struck us," he said.

Blood, debris from the damaged building, shattered glass and shoes were strewn around the brick path leading up to the church as dozens of people milled about in shock following the attack.

Hundreds of onlookers gathered in front of the hospital's locked gates, while inside the hospital women wailed and pounded their chests.

"I was still inside the church when I heard explosions," Margif Tariq, a hospital worker, said. "Window panes were falling on us, everyone was crying, everyone was in pain ... When I came out, I saw dozens of women were lying on the pavement and most of them were bleeding."

Witnesses said three young men, one carrying a handgun, entered the hospital compound in the ancient Buddhist town of Taxila, 25 miles from Islamabad, just before the attack.

Police said that because of heavy rain the main security guards had sought shelter in a guard box and did not see the attackers. One of the men stood guard by the main gate as his two accomplices targeted the main door to the church.

After hurling the grenades at the churchgoers, the men fled pursued by some security guards and police. One of the attackers was killed. Some reports said he was killed by his accomplices to prevent him revealing the identity of the group, while others said he died from shrapnel wounds to the heart.

The Minister for Minorities Affairs, S K Tressler, said: "It is clear that the terrorists are targeting the Christian community in Pakistan." Mr Tressler, who is a Christian, said the attack appeared to be linked to Monday's assault on the Christian missionary school in Murree in which six people died. Mr Tressler said the attackers had used similar methods and were dressed similarly to Monday's attackers who had warned that others like them planned "to carry out similar attacks on Americans and non-believers".

The hospital is supported by the US Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan and treats mostly poor Muslim patients.

Joseph Lal, the hospital's administrator, said the attack had left the Christian community, which accounts for 5 per cent of Pakistan's mainly Muslim population of 145 million, feeling even more vulnerable.

"We have been here since 1922 and someone throws a bomb. I don't know why. It is somebody who must be against Christianity. We never thought we would be a target like that."

The attack was the fourth on a Christian target since Pakistan's President joined the war against terror after the attacks of 11 September.

In October, armed men gunned down 16 worshippers at a Catholic church in the southern Punjab city of Bahawalpur. Five people including a US diplomat's wife and stepdaughter were killed when an Islamabad church packed with foreign diplomats' families was attacked with grenades in March.

Australia's cricket board has cancelled a test tour of Pakistan due to take place in October and proposed it be moved to a neutral country because of the security fears.