Minority rights organizations in Pakistan are threatening to launch a countrywide agitation to protest the killings of two priests over the last six months, bringing the total number of Christians killed in the past four years to 46.
Father Mukhtar Barkat Masih, 50, was shot dead last week by unidentified assailants while on his way to the railway station in the city of Khanewal in the northern Punjab province.
Amid condemnation from human rights and minority rights organizations, the leaders of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) said they would also take up the issue in provincial assemblies and the International Court of Justice if the killers of Father Masih and Father George Ibrahim, who was murdered in Punjab in July 2003, were not apprehended.
The proposed agitation will be led by the Bishop of the Church of Pakistan, John Victor Mal, Punjab provincial assembly member Naveed Amer Jeeva, the emissary of Pope John Paul II for Muslim-Christian religious affairs, Father James Channan, the chairperson of the Justice and Peace Commission, Noris Nawab, and the executive secretary of the Justice and Peace Commission, Aftab Alexandar Mughal.
"We would be forced to launch an agitation if the killers of the two priests are not arrested within seven days," they warned.
The APMA also asked the government to provide adequate protection to minority religious leaders. "A judicial commission should be formed to investigate the incidents, and compensation must be paid to the bereaved family of the priests," they demanded.
There is a great deal of public anger as well. Last week, hundreds of Christians took to the streets to protest the killing of Father Masih.
The demonstrators, mostly women, raised slogans against the administration for its indifference, calling for investigations to trace the murderers and pay compensation to the bereaved families.
The president of the Christian-Muslim Unity Front (CMUF), Malik Imran Ahmed, condemned the murder of Father Masih. He urged the government to ensure the security of the minorities, declaring that such incidents created a sense of insecurity among them.
For his part, Father Masih's son Moosa Mukhtar Masih, says his father harbors no enmity against anyone and was very popular among Muslims and Christians in the area. He says after the murder police guards were deployed at their home for his family's safety.
Minority member of the district assembly, Foster Masih, and councilor Cecil Amanat Masih both call it an act of terrorism. They claim the administration is concealing the truth to avoid an inquiry. They say their protest will continue till the arrest of the killers.
Deputy superintendent of police Mohammed Shahzad Akhtar feels it is an act of terrorism. "But we are still investigating," he adds.
According to district police officer Jamil Ahmed, the "unidentified assailants" sprayed a volley of bullets point blank into Masih's chest. Ahmed says the pastor was not reported to have personal enemies, but had received death threats from local Muslims in the past because of his religion.
Officials say a case of murder has been registered, and various investigation teams constituted to hunt the killers. But the police have drawn a blank so far.
Senior police officials say the police are looking at personal enmity, intra-church politics and terrorism as likely motives. The killing is being investigated as an act of terror.
A recent US State Department report has clubbed Pakistan among countries that exhibit state hostility towards minority religions.
The report slams Pakistan for failing in "many respects" to protect religious minorities and for passing discriminatory laws that fuel violence against minority Muslim groups and against Christians and Hindus.
According to the report, Pakistan has "failed in many respects to protect the rights of religious minorities, due to both public policy and the government's unwillingness to take action against societal forces hostile to those who practice a different faith."
Christians constitute almost four per cent of Pakistan's 145 million strong population, and have been living in harmony with the majority Muslims since the country was formed in 1947.
One of the worst attacks on Christians in Pakistan took place in October 2001 in the southern city of Bahawalpur, where 16 people were murdered in a terrorist attack.
Other major flare-ups in 2003 included an attack on a church in Islamabad's diplomatic area in which two Americans were killed, an attack on a missionary school in Murree in Punjab and a strike on a church in the ancient city of Taxila in Punjab province.