A US diplomat`s wife and daughter were among five people killed in a grenade attack on a Protestant church in the Pakistani capital on Sunday, a police intelligence officer said. "Among the dead are two US citizens. They are the wife and daughter of a US diplomat," the officer said on condition of anonymity. The US embassy confirmed that two Americans had been killed.
"I can confirm that two Americans were killed," US embassy spokesman Mark Wentworth said. However, he refused to comment on whether the two were the wife and daughter of a US diplomat, as a police intelligence officer had said.
Sri Lanka`s ambassador to Pakistan, his wife and child were among the 41 people injured, the interior ministry`s National Crisis Cell, Brigadier Javed Cheema said. A doctor at Islamabad`s Polyclinic Hospital said that six foreigners were in a critical condition, among 20 who had been brought to the hospital.
Cheema said that the injured toll had been revised down from an earlier figure of 45 to 41.
Two attackers hurled grenades into the Protestant International Church at around 10:50 am (0550 GMT) where up to 70 worshippers including "many foreigners" were attending prayer services, police and witnesses said. A police intelligence officer said on condition of anonymity that a total of eight grenades were thrown at the congregation.
Islamabad police chief Nasir Durrani Durrani said: "According to one version a man of local appearance entered the church and threw hand grenades, while another version is that a second man came in through a different door and also threw grenades."
Many foreigners were among 60 to 70 worshippers inside the Protestant International Church at the time of the attack, police said.
A government spokesman called the attack "an act of sabotage against Pakistan`s national interests". President Pervez Musharraf "is deeply saddened over this outrageous attack," the spokesman said, adding "he has ordered the security agencies to track down those involved." Bureau Report