By Jaime Ortega.
At least 78 people have died , including seven children and 34 women, and more than a hundred were injured in a double suicide bombing near a church in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar , police said .
The attack happened just before noon, local time, in the Kohati Gate City , capital of the restive province of Khyber – Pakhtunkhwa . Security forces have cordoned off the area and the injured are being shifted to Lady Reading Hospital, the largest in the city.
At the time of the explosion there were more than 600 faithful christian gathered at the site and most were leaving the temple , according to witnesses cited by the private television channel Geo TV .
The bombings and other violent events have been scaling with constant pace in this province, which borders the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, a territory that has never been under complete control of the state and home to Taliban and jihadi groups factions.
In a statement, the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he was ” shocked” by the attack and said that “terrorists have no religion ” and that “attacking innocent people is against the teachings of Islam and any faith.” Sharif has shown in recent weeks posture for approaching the Pakistani Taliban and other related groups.
Overtures
On day 9, a multiparty conference organized by his government agreed to provide the insurgents start a dialogue to end the violence , but has not yet begun any formal negotiations .
Pakistan is officially an Islamic republic , established in 1947 after independence from the British Empire as a homeland for the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent .
Currently and according to official data not updated since more than a decade ago , about 97 % of the more than 180 million inhabitants are Muslims, while Christians account for less than 2% of the population.
Attacks against religious minorities has intensified in recent years , although recently more branches have been targeted specially Shia Islam .
In March 2011 the Minister assassinated Minorities, like the Catholic Shahbaz Bhatti, which has been perhaps the largest attack against representatives of the Christian faith in recent times .
Also they’ve been cites these years several of notorious cases from accusations to Christians of blaspheming Islam, a crime in Pakistan punishable with the death penalty and is usually used by radicals to get away with first degree murder.
