Gunmen killed a Christian cleric and wounded his colleague as they had been driving house from church in Pakistan’s northwestern metropolis of Peshawar on Sunday, police stated.
Pastor William Siraj died immediately within the ambush, church authorities stated.
Nobody instantly claimed duty for the capturing in a metropolis the place a twin suicide bombing killed scores of individuals outdoors a church in 2013 – one of many deadliest assaults on the nation’s Christian minority.
Azad Marshall, essentially the most senior bishop within the protestant Church of Pakistan, condemned the assault and tweeted: “We demand justice and safety of Christians from the Authorities of Pakistan.”
Pakistan’s northwestern areas bordering Afghanistan have seen an increase in militant assaults on safety forces in current days, most of them claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a bunch which associates itself with the Afghan Taliban.
The attackers opened hearth on the automobile carrying Pastor Siraj and the Rev Patrick Naeem within the metropolis’s Chamkani space, church officers stated.
Naeem was out of hazard and being handled, a spokesman for town’s Woman Studying hospital stated.
Bishop Azad stated each had been clergy of the Diocese of Peshawar within the Church of Pakistan, which is a union of protestant church buildings together with the Methodists and the Anglicans.