Peshawar church attack haunts Christians at Christmas

After passing multiple checkpoints under the watchful eyes of snipers stationed overhead, hundreds of Christians gathered for a Christmas mass in northwest Pakistan 12 years after suicide bombers killed dozens of worshippers.

The impact of metal shards remain etched on a wall next to a memorial bearing the names of those killed at All Saints Church in Peshawar, in the violence-wracked province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

"Even today, when I recall that day 12 years ago, my soul trembles," Natasha Zulfiqar, a 30-year-old housewife who was wounded in the attack along with her parents, told AFP on Thursday.

Her right wrist still bears the scar.

An Islamist militant group claimed responsibility for the attack on September 22, 2013, when 113 people were killed, according to a church toll.

"There was blood everywhere. The church lawn was covered with bodies," Zulfiqar said.

Christians make up less than two percent of Pakistan's 240 million people and have long faced discrimination in the conservative Muslim country, often sidelined into low-paying jobs and sometimes the target of blasphemy charges.

Along with other religious minorities, the community has often been targeted by Islamist militants over the years.

Today, a wall clock inside All Saints giving the time of the blast as 11:43 am is preserved in its damaged state, its glass shattered.

"The blast was so powerful that its marks are still visible on this wall -- and those marks are not only on the wall, but they are also etched into our hearts as well," said Emmanuel Ghori, a caretaker at the church.

Addressing a Christmas ceremony in the capital Islamabad, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to protect religious minorities.

"I want to make it clear that if any injustice is done to any member of a minority, the law will respond with full force," he said.

For Azzeka Victor Sadiq, whose father was killed and mother wounded in the blasts, "The intensity of the grief can never truly fade."

"Whenever I come to the church, the entire incident replays itself before my eyes," the 38-year-old teacher told AFP.