Meldung
cf. WCC Press Release, UP-01-37, of 29 October 2001
On 1 October, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser wrote to Pakistan's president General Pervaiz Musharaf, to the National Council of Churches, and to WCC member churches in Pakistan expressing the Council's "shock and profound distress" over the 25 September attack on a Christian non-governmental organization in Karachi, Idara-e-Amn-o-Insaf. Seven members of the organization's staff were killed in the attack.
In his letter to General Musharaf, Raiser notes that this is the fourth in a series of attacks targeting churches and Christian institutions. He recalls that after the attack on St Dominic's Roman Catholic Church in October 2001, the WCC asked that "a judicial enquiry" be made, and expresses dismay that "neither the culprits of the attack on St. Dominic's church nor those involved in subsequent attacks at the hospital and school in Taxela and Murree have been arrested and brought to trial before a court of law." He asks the president to make sure that Pakistan's law enforcement agencies do all in their power to bring the perpetrators to court so that justice can be done.
Raiser also renews the WCC's call on the government "to provide safety and security to the Christian minority in Pakistan".
In letters to the National Council of Churches and the two WCC member churches in Pakistan, Raiser expresses his condolences to the families of the victims, deplores the violent killings, and notes that Idara-e-Amn-o-Insaf "works for the poor and socially marginalized in Pakistan society, irrespective of their religious beliefs".
Idara-e-Amn-o-Insaf is a partner in the WCC's Urban Rural Mission network.