Christian Girl Describes the Day Her Family Was Slaughtered on Easter
A Christian girl whose mother and three uncles were killed by Islamic radicals on Easter in Pakistan provided details of the "unforgettable" horror she experienced the day the attack went down, saying it turned the Christian celebration into a black day in her mind.
The teenage girl, identified as Kinza in an interview with International Christian Concern, explained that her family was traveling from Lahore to Quetta to celebrate Easter with other relatives. She was "extremely excited" for her first trip to the city.
"We arrived there on March 31 and I had fun with cousins, visited a few new places, and enjoyed the Easter Sunday," Kinza told ICC.
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"I never thought I'd be going through [such] agony and end up losing my mother and three uncles the very next day. It was an unforgettable and unbelievable day. I will mark it as a black day throughout my life."
Firdous, the girl's mother, along with her uncles, Tariq Masih, Imran Masih, and Pervaiz Masih, were all shot and killed on Easter Monday as they were getting on an auto-rickshaw.
"Pervaiz was sitting on the driver's seat of the auto-rickshaw, and Tariq and Imran were chatting with him while standing on the left and right side of the auto-rickshaw," Kinza recalled.
"My mother and another cousin of mine were sitting on the back seat of the vehicle. I was about to join my mother when I saw two masked men on a motorbike with guns. They stopped in front of the auto-rickshaw and began shooting at Imran and Tariq. Within no time, they then fired at Pervaiz and my mother."
The teenager said that she managed to run inside the house and close the door from inside.
"The attackers banged on the door in order to get inside the house; however, thank God, they failed," she added in the emotional interview.
"After a few moments, we rushed outside and saw blood on the street and the dead bodies of our beloveds on the ground."
The Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that a "covert unit" of its fighters "managed to target a number of the combatant Christians."
The radicals explained that its militants "shot them (the Christians) with a pistol, which resulted in the killing of four of them, and all praise is due to Allah."
Provincial police official Moazzam Jah Ansari confirmed at the time that the incident was a "targeted attack" and an "act of terrorism."
Another major attack on Christians in Quetta occurred in the weeks just before Christmas, when IS killed nine believers and injured dozens more at Bethel Memorial Methodist Church.
Watchdog groups such as the British Pakistani Christian Association pointed out that the Pakistani government had been warned of increasing IS threats, but had not taken adequate safety measures.
"We are praying for healing for the young girl who has been injured in this attack and will be providing whatever assistance we can to the family involved in this tragic incident. It is heart-breaking to think that this poor child — if she survives — will have lost her immediate family," Wilson Chowdhry, chairman of the BPCA, said at the time.
"Christians face a torrid time in Pakistan where their lives are under constant threat from extremist terrorist groups and people in their community have severe prejudices that can lead to blasphemy charges, an equally fatal consideration."
Emmanuel Masih, Kinza's father, also told ICC that the government has not provided enough security.
"We want justice. The officials only arranged the shifting of the bodies of our loved ones to the Lahore airport. They have done nothing beyond that point. The provincial government has announced some solidarity packages for the martyrs' families; however, these promises have not been fulfilled," he stated.
