Anti-Christian violence in Pakistan continued to take a toll as two Christians were shot and killed and two were wounded after Muslim youths allegedly attacked them outside a church building in Hyderabad on March 22, according to reports in Christian media.
Worshipers were celebrating the 30th anniversary of their Salvation Army church when a group of Muslim youths gathered outside the building and harassed women as they arrived, the reports said.
After two men asked the youths to stop teasing the women, the youths left, then returned with handguns. An argument erupted into gunfire, killing two men instantly, and wounding two others, said the reports.
Members of the congregation complained that they could not get local police to register the case until they protested and blocked a main road with the bodies of the dead men.
The killings come a week after another Christian, sentenced to life imprisonment on blasphemy charges, died in Karachi Central Prison. The family of Qamar David claims he was murdered on March 15, while authorities claim he died of heart failure.
On March 2, Federal Minister for (religious) Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti was assassinated in Islamabad after he opposed the laws that make criticism of the Prophet Muhammad punishable by death.