PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN :-- The Christian residents of the Pakistani city of Peshawar, the provincial capital of North-West Frontier Province, have received letters, asking them to convert to Islam or else face suicide bombing.
The Christian residents of Charsadda and Mardan in the conservative NWFP province had in May received unsigned threatening letters that forced many Christians to flee to places of safety.
After the passage of three months, many Christian residents of Tailgodom, Sandagodom and Goalgodom in Peshawar city, received three letters threatening them with suicide bombing if they did not convert to Islam.
"These letters sent a wave of fear and uncertainty among the Christian residents of these said areas," Kamran George, a minority member of the district government Peshawar told ANS.
He said the residents of the Christian compounds of Tailgodom, Sandagodom and Goalgodom, each housing some 2000 Christians," received the threatening letters on August 7.
"Through this open letter you are openly invited to convert to Islam and quit Christianity, the religion of infidels," the letter began.
It continued, "Ensure your place in heaven by coming into the fold of Islam. We will wipe out your slum on next Friday, August, 10th, 2007. And you, yourself would be responsible for the destruction of your men and material. Get ready! This is not a mere threat, our suicide bombers are ready to wipe out your name and signs from the face of earth. Consider it be the Knock of Death."
Hundreds of angry Christians staged a press demonstration on August 8 demanding that the government apprehend the perpetrators and provide them with security, said Kamran George.
Slum where many of the Christian residents of Peshawar live
He maintained that the Christian residents of the said areas received yet another letter, which he said was written in reaction to the US Presidential candidate Tom Tancredo's suggestion that Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina could be bombed in retaliation for a terrorist nuclear attack.
The letter, written in Urdu, Pakistan's national language, stated: "We would be pleased to send those to Hell who dared casting malicious eye on Khana Kaba (Mecca, Saudi Arabia) and Prophet's Mosque (Medina, Saudi Arabia). There is death here (in Pakistan) for the agents and followers of the religion of
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