Pakistan church attacks: 47 Christians sent to custody for lynching

LAHORE: A Pakistani court today remanded 47 Christians in police custody for 10 days for allegedly lynching two Muslim youths after Taliban suicide bombers attacked two packed churches in Pakistan's biggest Christian colony here last month, killing 17 people.

Police produced the accused before Lahore's Anti-Terrorism Court-III Judge Haroon Latif and sought extension to the physical remand of 22 accused and fresh remand of the 25 arrested and identified during the investigation parade held at Kot Lakhpat Jail.

The judge remanded all the 47 accused in police custody till May 8.

In one of the worst attacks on the minority community in the country, two suicide bombers on March 15 blew themselves up during the Sunday mass at the gates of twin churches in Youhanabad, the largest Christian dwelling in the country, killing 17 people and injuring over 80 others.

After the attack on the churches, police had taken two suspects into custody from the site and shifted them to a vehicle when a group of enraged youngsters got hold of them.

The mob set the two suspects on fire after severely beating them.

It was later found that the two lynched Muslim youths were working in different shops in Yauhanabad and had no criminal record.

The suicide attacks were claimed by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan's splinter group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar. The same group had claimed the responsibility of a suicide attack on the Wagah border in September last year in which 60 people were killed.

Police registered two separate cases -- one against the attacks on the two churches and the other against the people involved in killing the two Muslim youths.