President condemns attack on church
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday condemned and deplored the attack and burning of a church in Mardan by a mob. The president in a message said that the highly provocative anti-Islam film had been condemned throughout the world and particularly in Pakistan by the Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
However the ransacking of public and private property particularly the places of worship of other religions was itself an un-Islamic and highly condemnable act, he opined.He said that the ransacking and vandalising revered places of worship and inflicting damage in retaliation amounted to playing into the hands of perpetrators of the crime who produced the anti-Islam film. Describing the torching of the church as ‘unfortunate and reprehensible’ the president said that it was contrary to the teachings of Islam which ordained respect of the places of worship of all the religions. He said that incidents like this portrayed Pakistan and the Muslims negatively.
The president called upon the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to take all appropriate measures to protect the places of worship of Christians and other minorities and address their grievances and take measures to avoid such incidents in future.
A protesting mob in Mardan on Friday set the Sarhadi Lutheran Church on fire and torched the attached building.
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