Catholic priest murdered in Pakistan

A Roman Catholic priest was shot and killed in eastern Pakistan early today, police said.

No one claimed responsibility for the murder of Fr George Ibrahim in Ranala Kot, a small village about 180 miles south of the federal capital of Islamabad.

Gunmen broke into the priest’s home and shot him, police said. No arrests were made.

Fr Ibrahim had received several death threats, according to Shahbaz Bhatti, head of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance. The threats appeared to have been linked to a school that had been returned to the Roman Catholic church by the province.

“He wanted to denationalise 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.

He said he feared the threats came from extremist Muslim groups.

Bhatti said extremist groups had targeted Pakistan’s minority Christian community since the 2001 start of the US-led war on terror in Afghanistan, because Christians were associated with the United States, which is seen as a mostly Christian country.

The killing comes less than 24 hours after suicide attackers massacred 44 Shiite Muslims in a mosque in south western Baluchistan province. Three suicide attackers also died in the attack.