At least 8 killed in church attack in Pakistan

Pakistani security personnel take position after suicide bombers attacked a Methodist church during a Sunday service in Quetta on December 17, 2017.

(Image credit: Banaras Khan/Getty Images)

published 17 December 2017

At least eight people were killed and dozens more wounded, nine critically, on Sunday in a suicide attack on a Methodist church in Quetta, Pakistan, close to the Afghan border. Four attackers targeted the church, but only one detonated his suicide vest. Another was killed in a gunfight with police, and two more were intercepted at the church door, preventing further casualties.

More than 400 people were at Bethel Memorial Methodist Church when the attack occurred, reported Sarfaraz Bugti, the regional home minister. They were attending a Christmas service. The attack has yet to be publicly linked to a specific terrorist organization.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox