Pakistan —Due to extreme bombing in Pakistan in late 2002, which resulted in the deaths of over 20 people, the Murree Christian School was also under the attack in August of that year yet it is being repaired to re-open, moving forward in hope.
Interserve’s John Kennedy says the multi-agency school is “… in the process, right now, of trying to find staff. They lost a number of teachers, and the headmaster moved on to other things. They're trying to fill those positions now." Currently temporary director has been appointed until the school re-opens.
Kennedy says because of the conditions, heightened security measures are underway for the 2004-2005 school year. He explained of the difficult position that the teachers are in. "With some of the changes that have to be made, that's going to change the whole environment atmosphere, context, and make that, not impossible, but a lot more difficult."
According to Pakistani reports, the January bombing reminded of the anti-Christian attacks in late 2002. In March of that year, a church attended by diplomats was attacked by a suicide bomber followed by two attacks in August that happened in Murree Christian School, close to the capital Islamabad, killing six people, and in hospital chapel in Taxila, close to Islamabad.
The worst attack came a month later, in September 2002, when seven Christian welfare workers in Karachi were shot to death in their office. And yet another attack in December 2002 saw three more people killed in their church in a village in Punjab.
