Human Rights Voices

While the UN devotes its human rights operations to the demonization of the democratic state of Israel above all others and condemns the United States more often than the vast majority of non-democracies around the world, the voices of real victims around the world must be heard.

Pakistan, March 28, 2016

Taliban suicide bomber targets Christians in Pakistan, killing 72, including 29 children

Original source

Daily Mail

More than 70 people, including 29 children, have been killed by a Taliban suicide bomber who targeted Christians near a children's playground in a park in Pakistan.

Some 300 people were injured when explosives packed with ball bearings ripped through crowds near the children's swings in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, in Lahore, where many had gathered to celebrate Easter.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban, has claimed responsibility for the attack, adding: 'The target was Christians.'

Senior police official Haider Ashraf confirmed that the death toll had risen to 72 on Monday morning, adding the majority of the dead were Muslims.

The blast happened a few metres away from children's swings, and most of the victims are believed to be women and children.

Witnesses described children screaming as people carried the injured in their arms, while frantic relatives searched for loved ones.

The chief minister of Punjab province, Shahbaz Sharif, has announced three days mourning and pledged to ensure that those involved in the attack are brought to trial.

Nasreen Bibi, the mother of a two-year-old injured in the attack, spoke through tears as she waited for news from the doctors.

'We were just here to have a nice evening and enjoy the weather. May God shower his wrath upon these attackers. What kind of people target little children in a park?'