海角大神

A pair of suicide bombers聽聽at a 海角大神 church in the northern city of Peshawar, Pakistan on Sunday. It's being called the largest attack of its kind against 海角大神s in Pakistan.

This is the latest in a series of bombings and assassinations emerging from (and feeding) the political and sectarian discord in this volatile nation situated between Afghanistan, Iran, and India.

that an attack of this size is only a portion of the terrorism toll overall in Pakistan:

As many 1,222 people, including 425 police and security officials and 797 civilians, have been killed in 858 terrorist attacks across Pakistan from Jan. 1 to Aug. 31, according to statistics presented to parliament by the Interior Ministry this month. That included 25 suicide attacks and 60 bomb blasts.

, it is unclear who was behind the attack, but two militant groups linked to the Pakistani Taliban have claimed credit.

Jandullah and the Junood ul-Hifsa - both with past links to the Pakistani Taliban - said they ordered the double bombing in retaliation for US drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal north-west. The Pakistani Taliban, however, condemned the attack. Correspondents say the group frequently denies responsibility for attacks which take a heavy civilian toll.

The attack resonated worldwide. that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack in a statement that also reiterated the UN's solidarity with the Pakistani government's struggle against terrorism and extremism.

The bombing has cast a shadow across recent government attempts to start a peace process with the Pakistani Taliban. The three-month-old government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made peace with the Taliban a priority earlier this month, but the bombing makes talk of a dialogue with militants difficult for the Pakistani public to support. From an :

"What dialogue are we talking about? Peace with those who are killing innocent people," asked the head of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, Paul Bhatti, whose brother, a federal minister, was gunned down by an Islamic extremist in 2011. "They don't want dialogue," said Bhatti. "They don't want peace."

, and despite the bloodshed he said he was still hopeful that some sort of long-term solution could be found.

鈥淭hose who did this were not humans,鈥� Imran Khan, whose party runs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told reporters outside the hospital in Peshawar. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we should give up efforts to find those groups who want to talk. We need to know who wants to talk.鈥�

In the wake of the attack, the government has decreed a three-day period of national mourning, . While announcing the mourning period, Pakistan's federal minister of interior suggested that the government would go to greater lengths to protect 海角大神s from future attacks.

鈥淥n a federal level, we have decided to review the protection of the 海角大神 community in the country, who are perhaps considered by the terrorists as soft targets. We have decided to chalk out a bigger plan to brush up security preparations for their houses, community areas and churches.鈥�

The mourning period comes amid widespread protests against the attack and the Pakistani government by members of the country's 海角大神s, who of the country's population. In Peshawar, , protesters blocked roads using coffins containing the bodies of those who lost their lives in the attack.

The troubles of Pakistan's 海角大神s in this instance echo but do not precisely parallel the violence waged by Islamists against Coptic 海角大神s in Egypt. In Egypt, the Monitor reported, 海角大神s were blamed for protests that led to the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi; in Pakistan, they have been nominally blamed for the ongoing US drone campaign in the country's tribal areas.