Catholic Priest Murdered in Pakistan Home

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-Priest-Killed.html
The New York Times

July 5, 2003

Catholic Priest Murdered in Pakistan Home

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 5:48 a.m. ET

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- A Roman Catholic priest who received death threats after his church took over a school in eastern Pakistan was gunned down at home Saturday, police said.

Gunmen broke into Rev. George Ibrahim's home in Ranala Kot, a small village about 180 miles south of Islamabad, shortly after midnight. There were no reports of arrests and no claims of responsibility.

Ibrahim had received several death threats, according to Shahbaz Bhatti, head of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance. The threats apparently came after the province returned the school to Catholic Church ownership.

``He wanted to denationalize the school, which had been the property of the church and when he got it back he received threats saying 'you will pay a price for the school,''' Bhatti said.

It was not known who made the threats, but Bhatti feared it was extremist Muslim groups, who have been blamed for previous attacks against Christians in Pakistan.

Bhatti said that Pakistan's minority Christian community has been targeted by extremist groups since the 2001 start of the U.S.-led war on terror in Afghanistan because Christians here are associated with the United States, which is seen as a mostly Christian country.

Extremist Muslim groups have been staunch opponents of Musharraf's support for the anti-terror war and have targeted Christians several times.



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