(Open Doors USA) — The early morning hours of September 2 dawned with a brutal attack on a Christian colony in Pakistan. One person, Samuel Masih, was killed and two policemen injured at the Warsak Dam colony where the attack took place, twelve miles outside Peshawar. It is not far from the Army Public School, where 141 people, including 132 students, were killed after a December 2014 attack.
An Islamist group linked to the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for this attack, saying it was a response to recent Army claims that it has pushed back terrorist violence. Unconfirmed reports said the group had intended to attack Army “targets,” but ended up moving to the Christian Colony instead. The attack may also have been a reaction to the recent Pakistan Supreme Court decision to reject the appeals of 16 people sentenced to death for terrorism, two of whom are believed to have been involved in the 2014 Army Public School bombing.
Samuel Masih, 55, a worker at the site of the Peshawar Development Authority, spent his last hours with his wife, discussing wedding plans for one of their children. And then he left for work. As he walked toward the gate around 5:30 a.m., four suicide bombers carrying automatic weapons were waiting at the gate to the colony, which is locked every night. When Samuel opened the gate, they shot him.
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