Mob attacks priests at school in Pakistan

(April 18, 2012) The Church in Pakistan is seeking help from the authorities, after land mafia attacked two priests and several parishioners at a Catholic school in Karachi on Monday. Fr. Pervez Khalid, another senior priest and six Church workers were assaulted by a group 70 people, after entering the playground of Cardinal Cordeiro High School which has been seized by land grabbers. The trouble began on Sunday, when local residents informed Church authorities that some men were demolishing a wall at the school in Karachi’s Korangi town. Other men were seen marking out a piece of ground measuring about 2,000 sq m. “We went to see where they made the illegal plot markings the next day, when about 70 men arrived and ordered us to leave. They even damaged the car of a priest who had land documents,” said Fr Khalid of Karachi’s Good Shepherd Parish. The priests and representatives from the Church’s Justice and Peace commission on Tuesday met the town administrator Shahbaz Khan and are now seeking support from local politicians, as well as government chiefs. They say the property was purchased from the Karachi Development Authority 24 years ago. Police removed the labourers and have issued security assurances but we cannot open the school on the basis of verbal guarantees, especially after what happened on Monday, said Khan. And Fr. Khalid said “We want peace and are saddened by attempts to target the school. It will not be possible to offer a healthy future to students if the place is taken,” he added.