{"id":1256618,"date":"2022-01-30T16:52:27","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T21:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1256618"},"modified":"2022-01-30T16:52:38","modified_gmt":"2022-01-30T21:52:38","slug":"assailants-gun-down-christian-priests-in-pakistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/assailants-gun-down-christian-priests-in-pakistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Assailants Gun Down Christian Priests in Pakistan"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fassailants-gun-down-christian-priests-in-pakistan%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1256618&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/GettyImages-1232099405-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">Unknown gunmen opened fire on three Christian priests as they exited church in their car in Pakistan\u2019s northwestern city of Peshawar Sunday, leaving one dead and one wounded.<\/p>\n<p>The three priests from the Church of Pakistan were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/a\/gunmen-assassinate-christian-priest-wound-another-in-peshawar-pakistan\/6418825.html\">leaving<\/a> a city church following Sunday services when two gunmen riding a motorcycle began firing on their vehicle.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Pastor William Siraj, 75, received multiple gunshot wounds and died instantly whereas Reverend Patrick Naeem Patrick suffered a gunshot wound to the hand and is in stable condition. The third, unnamed priest in the car was unharmed.<\/p>\n<p>As yet no one has taken responsibility for the shooting, the latest attack on Pakistan\u2019s small Christian community, and police officials say an operation to find and arrest the assailants is under way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe strongly condemn the firing on clergy of Diocese of Peshawar and instant killing of Pastor William Siraj and injuring Rev Patrick Naeem earlier today,\u201d Church of Pakistan Bishop Azad Marshall <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BishopAzadM\/status\/1487765028359000064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1487765028359000064%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.voanews.com%2Fa%2Fgunmen-assassinate-christian-priest-wound-another-in-peshawar-pakistan%2F6418825.html\">wrote<\/a> on Twitter. \u201cWe demand justice and protection of Christians from the Government of Pakistan.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, chairman of Pakistan\u2019s Ulema Council and special representative of the prime minister of Pakistan for Interfaith Harmony and Middle East, also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatoday.in\/world\/story\/christian-priest-shot-dead-in-northwestern-pakistan-1906516-2022-01-30\">condemned<\/a> the attack.<\/p>\n<p>A memorial service for Siraj will be held on Monday at Peshawar\u2019s All Saint\u2019s Church, the site of a major attack by Islamic militants in 2013. Over 70 worshippers were killed and 100 wounded in the assault that involved both bombs and firearms.<\/p>\n<p>Christians represent some two percent of Pakistan\u2019s population of around 220 million people, which is overwhelmingly Muslim.<\/p>\n<p>The recently released 2022 World Watch List, a ranking of the countries where it is most dangerous to be a Christian today, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opendoorsusa.org\/?wpdmdl=68023&amp;ind=1642196189310\">placed<\/a> Pakistan in the number eight position.<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, Christians in Pakistan are \u201cconsidered second-class citizens and are discriminated against in every aspect of life\u201d and violence against Christians \u201ccontinues to happen at extreme levels.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"twitter-follow-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tdwilliamsrome?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" data-show-count=\"false\">Follow @tdwilliamsrome<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unknown gunmen opened fire on three Christian priests as they exited church in their car in Pakistan\u2019s northwestern city of Peshawar Sunday, leaving one dead and one wounded. The three &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1894009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1256618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1256618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1894009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1256618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1256618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1256618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}