Pakistan’s Christian community is again drawing attention to the long shadow of the 2016 Easter Sunday bombing in Lahore, after Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province finally began distributing compensation to victims more than a decade after the attack. The payments revive painful memories of the March 27, 2016 blast at Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, which killed more than 70 people and wounded over 300, with the Taliban faction Jamaat ul-Ahrar claiming responsibility and saying Christians were the target.
The 2016 bombing drew immediate condemnation from church leaders around the world. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby, described the attack as “utterly contemptible” and prayed for the dead and wounded. Pope Francis called it “reprehensible” and appealed to Pakistan’s authorities to protect vulnerable religious minorities. In Pakistan, the Moderator of the Church of Pakistan, Bishop Samuel Azariah, said he had personally seen children, women, and elderly victims and warned that such attacks damage efforts to build peace between Christians and Muslims.
Thirteen years on, the latest compensation drive underscores how slowly justice has moved. According to UCA News, the provincial government has begun handing out checks to widows, orphans, and other minority victims of terrorism, some of them connected to the 2013 All Saints Church bombing in Peshawar. Families and advocates say the gesture, while welcome, comes far too late for many who have already endured years of grief, poverty, and medical hardship.
Michelle Chaudhry, president of the Cecil and Iris Chaudhry Foundation, said the delayed payments amount to “a mockery of justice.” Her criticism captures the frustration of many Pakistani Christians, who have seen repeated promises of redress, but little timely relief. For them, the new compensation is not just a financial matter; it is a reminder of how slowly the state has responded to violence against religious minorities.
Taken together, the Lahore bombing and the delayed compensation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa tell a familiar story: the recurring vulnerability of Pakistan’s Christians, the courage of church leaders in naming the violence, and the long struggle for justice after the cameras have moved on