Sri Lanka Easter Convictions Renew Questions Over Justice For Pakistan’s Christians

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent

COLOMBO/LAHORE (Worthy News) – Christian advocates urged authorities across South Asia on Sunday to ensure greater accountability for deadly attacks targeting Christians after recent convictions over Sri Lanka’s 2019 Easter bombings renewed scrutiny of attacks in Pakistan.

Sri Lanka’s High Court on September 22 convicted 15 men for helping plan and facilitate the coordinated Easter Sunday bombings of churches and luxury hotels that killed more than 260 people and injured hundreds in 2019.

The convictions followed a trial lasting more than five years. Nine other defendants were acquitted, while those convicted received prison terms ranging from 200 to 260 years.

The April 21, 2019, suicide bombings struck three churches and three luxury hotels as Christians gathered for Easter services and celebrations. The attacks were carried out by Islamic State-inspired extremists.

Sri Lankan authorities have also pursued senior officials over security failures preceding the bloodshed. In July, former Police Chief Pujith Jayasundara and former Defence Ministry Secretary Hemasiri Fernando were sentenced to death after being convicted of criminal negligence for failing to act on intelligence warnings. Sri Lanka has not carried out an execution since 1976.

PAKISTAN QUESTIONS

The developments prompted Sardar Mushtaq Gill, founder of Christian advocacy group LEAD Ministries, to question whether the justice system in fellow South Asian nation Pakistan has demonstrated sufficient persistence in holding those responsible for attacks against Christians to account.

Gill’s concerns center on whether investigations have gone beyond identifying or arresting individual attackers to establish the wider chain of responsibility, including those who planned, financed, supplied or facilitated attacks.

Pakistan has suffered several major attacks targeting Christians, including the 2013 bombing of All Saints Church in Peshawar, the 2015 suicide bombings at two churches in Lahore’s Youhanabad neighborhood and the 2016 Easter Sunday bombing at Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park in Lahore.

Pakistani authorities say they have investigated attacks and arrested suspected militants, rejecting suggestions that they failed to respond. However, Gill told Worthy News he remains concerned that many of those responsible for attacks against Christians ultimately escape justice.

Militant organizations publicly claimed responsibility for several of the attacks.

DEADLY CHURCH ATTACKS

On September 22, 2013, two suicide bombers attacked worshippers leaving All Saints Church in Peshawar following a Sunday service.

More than 80 people were killed and over 100 wounded in what became one of the deadliest attacks against Pakistan’s Christian minority.

Less than two years later, on March 15, 2015, suicide bombers attacked Christ Church and St. John’s Catholic Church in Youhanabad, Lahore, as Christians attended Sunday worship.

At least 16 people were killed and scores injured. Two Muslim security personnel protecting the churches were also among those who died.

The bombings were followed by protests and retaliatory violence in which two Muslim men suspected by a mob of involvement in the attacks were killed and their bodies burned.

EASTER FAMILIES TARGETED

Another major attack came on March 27, 2016, Easter Sunday, when a suicide bomber struck Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park in Lahore as families gathered for the holiday.

More than 70 people were killed and hundreds wounded, many of them women and children.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a Pakistani Taliban splinter group, claimed responsibility and explicitly identified Christians celebrating Easter as the intended target.

Many Muslims were also among the victims because the bombing occurred in a crowded public park. Christian rights advocates stressed that the presence of Muslim victims did not alter the stated motive of the organization that claimed responsibility.

Pakistani security forces launched operations against militants following the bombing and authorities announced arrests of suspected extremists.

ACCOUNTABILITY SOUGHT

Gill argues that justice for victims requires establishing, where evidence permits, not only who carried out an attack but who planned it, financed it, recruited attackers and provided logistical assistance.

For him, Sri Lanka’s Easter bombing prosecutions show that efforts to establish responsibility for major terrorist attacks can continue years after the violence itself.

The proceedings have extended beyond those accused of helping organize the suicide bombings to senior officials accused of failing to respond adequately to warnings before the attacks.

Gill believes that raises a broader question for Pakistan: whether authorities have pursued those behind attacks specifically targeting the country’s Christian minority with similar persistence.

For survivors and families of those killed, Christian advocates say the issue extends beyond security around churches to whether the rule of law can deliver justice years after an attack.

As Sri Lanka continues dealing with the consequences of its Easter bloodshed, Christian advocates hope the latest convictions will renew attention across South Asia to those suffering from what they describe as relentless Islamist violence and to the protection of vulnerable Christians.