{"id":28364,"date":"2018-04-24T07:04:34","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T07:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=28364"},"modified":"2018-04-24T07:04:34","modified_gmt":"2018-04-24T07:04:34","slug":"pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"PAKISTAN: Archbishop appeals for prayers after yet another attack on Christians John Pontifex &#8211; ACN UK"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>PAKISTAN <\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Archbishop appeals for prayers after yet another attack on Christians<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A leading Pakistan bishop has appealed for prayer after Christians in Quetta suffered their third attack in five months.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Two Christian men \u2013 named as Rashid Khalid and Azhar Iqbal \u2013 and three others were injured after four attackers on motorbikes started shooting at people near a church in Quetta\u2019s Essa Nagri Christian neighbourhood.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The attack, last Sunday (15th April), came nearly two weeks after a family of four Catholics from Lahore were gunned down outside a relative\u2019s house during an Easter visit to the city.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The dead \u2013 named as Parvaiz, Kamran, Tariq and Ford \u2013 had reportedly just stepped outside to buy ice cream when they were targeted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">According to a missionary group in Pakistan, the attackers left a pamphlet at the scene of the crime describing the killing as \u201cthe first episode of genocide against Christians\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Daesh (ISIS) claimed responsibility for both attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, the Catholic charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, Archbishop Sebastian Shaw of Lahore said \u201cThe faithful in Quetta are deeply concerned and worried.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cAll these sufferings and pain can be overcome by faith so through ACN I call on everyone to pray for peace and harmony so that people of all religions may live in Pakistan in peace and harmony.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Archbishop, who gave the interview during a visit to ACN\u2019s international headquarters in K\u00f6nigstein, Germany, said: \u201cWhen we see these atrocities happening one after another, we very much depend on the spiritual communion that we have with friends and benefactors of Aid to the Church in Need.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He added: \u201cWhen we are tempted to lose hope, we are reminded that, through your compassion and prayers, you are with us, by our side.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Archbishop called for increased police protection. He said: \u201cThe government should provide better security so that all the people can live side by side safe and secure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Quetta\u2019s Christians have targeted again in December when two suicide bombers stormed a packed nativity service held in the city\u2019s Bethel Methodist Church, leaving 11 dead and injuring more than 50 others.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Last October, militants hurled a grenade at a Protestant church in Quetta\u2019s Arbab Karam Khan Road area, but nobody was hurt as worshippers had already left the building.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">That same month, Pakistan was identified as a country with worsening persecution in ACN\u2019s Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians oppressed for their Faith, a report produced every two years by the charity, examining parts of the world of particular concern for faithful under threat from religious freedom violations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Pakistan is a priority country for ACN, which works in more than 140 countries around the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>John Pontifex \u2013 ACN UK<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PAKISTAN Archbishop appeals for prayers after yet another attack on Christians &nbsp; A leading Pakistan bishop has appealed for prayer after Christians in Quetta suffered their third attack in five months.\u00a0 Two Christian men \u2013 named as Rashid Khalid and Azhar Iqbal \u2013 and three others were injured after four attackers on motorbikes started shooting&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>PAKISTAN: Archbishop appeals for prayers after yet another attack on Christians John Pontifex - ACN UK - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PAKISTAN: Archbishop appeals for prayers after yet another attack on Christians John Pontifex - ACN UK - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"PAKISTAN Archbishop appeals for prayers after yet another attack on Christians &nbsp; A leading Pakistan bishop has appealed for prayer after Christians in Quetta suffered their third attack in five months.\u00a0 Two Christian men \u2013 named as Rashid Khalid and Azhar Iqbal \u2013 and three others were injured after four attackers on motorbikes started shooting...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-24T07:04:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/ACN-20170622-56664.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"3159\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2106\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/\",\"name\":\"PAKISTAN: Archbishop appeals for prayers after yet another attack on Christians John Pontifex - ACN UK - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/ACN-20170622-56664.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-24T07:04:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-04-24T07:04:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/ACN-20170622-56664.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/ACN-20170622-56664.jpg\",\"width\":3159,\"height\":2106},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"PAKISTAN: Archbishop appeals for prayers after yet another attack on Christians John Pontifex &#8211; ACN UK\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\",\"name\":\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"description\":\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\",\"name\":\"ACN Malta Media\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"ACN Malta Media\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/author\/admin2\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"PAKISTAN: Archbishop appeals for prayers after yet another attack on Christians John Pontifex - ACN UK - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"PAKISTAN: Archbishop appeals for prayers after yet another attack on Christians John Pontifex - ACN UK - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","og_description":"PAKISTAN Archbishop appeals for prayers after yet another attack on Christians &nbsp; A leading Pakistan bishop has appealed for prayer after Christians in Quetta suffered their third attack in five months.\u00a0 Two Christian men \u2013 named as Rashid Khalid and Azhar Iqbal \u2013 and three others were injured after four attackers on motorbikes started shooting...","og_url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/","og_site_name":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","article_published_time":"2018-04-24T07:04:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":3159,"height":2106,"url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/ACN-20170622-56664.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ACN Malta Media","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ACN Malta Media","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/","name":"PAKISTAN: Archbishop appeals for prayers after yet another attack on Christians John Pontifex - ACN UK - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/ACN-20170622-56664.jpg","datePublished":"2018-04-24T07:04:34+00:00","dateModified":"2018-04-24T07:04:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/ACN-20170622-56664.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/ACN-20170622-56664.jpg","width":3159,"height":2106},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/04\/24\/pakistan-archbishop-appeals-for-prayers-after-yet-another-attack-on-christians-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"PAKISTAN: Archbishop appeals for prayers after yet another attack on Christians John Pontifex &#8211; ACN UK"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/","name":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","description":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2","name":"ACN Malta Media","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"ACN Malta Media"},"url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/author\/admin2\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28364"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28382,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28364\/revisions\/28382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}