Iran Condemns Terrorist Attack on Church in Pakistan
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi strongly denounced a recent terrorist attack on a church in the city of Quetta in Pakistan, dismissing it as a merciless and blind act against innocent people.
In a Monday statement, Qassemi expressed condolences to the Pakistani people and government over the tragedy and sympathized with the families of the victims of the attack.
“The remnants of the Takfiri-Zionist terrorists of Daesh, who have emerged in the Middle East through the backing of some regional and trans-regional countries and who have suffered definitive defeats in Syria and Iraq, have spread throughout the region and are killing and shedding the blood of innocent people with whatever religion and ideology in any corner of the world,” he noted.
“Having suffered a defeat, they seek to cause panic among the regional nations and undermine their unity by conducting sporadic, indiscriminate and blind terrorist attacks,” said the spokesman.
“Although the largest terrorist group in the world was busted to ill-wishers’ chagrin and with the steely resolve of the governments and nations in the region, their remnants continue to conduct such brutal acts in a bid to keep the terrorist ideology alive to perpetuate chaos and unrest in the region and in the world,” Qassemi added.
A suicide bomber attacked a church packed with worshippers Sunday in Pakistan, leaving seven people dead and more than 20 others injured.
Two attackers targeted a Methodist church in Quetta, but only one managed to detonate his vest, said Sarfaraz Bugti, the interior minister of Baluchistan province. The second attacker was shot by a church security guard before he detonated his explosives, Bugti said.
The civilians were killed during the blast and the intense firefight that followed, according to Moazzam Jah Ansari, the provincial police chief. More than 400 people were in the church at the time of the attack, he said.
