After passing multiple checkpoints under the watchful eyes of snipers stationed overhead, hundreds of Christians gathered for a Christmas mass in northwest Pakistan 12 years after suicide bombers killed dozens of worshippers.The impact of metal shards remain etched on a wall next to a memorial bearing the names of those killed at All Saints Church in Peshawar, in the violence-wracked province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.”Even today, when I recall that day 12 years ago, my soul trembles,” Natasha Zulfiqar, a 30-year-old housewife who was wounded in the attack along with her parents, told AFP on Thursday.Her right wrist still bears the scar.An Islamist militant group claimed responsibility for the attack on September 22, 2013, when 113 people were killed, according to a church toll.”There was blood everywhere. The church lawn was covered with bodies,” Zulfiqar said.Christians make up less than two percent of Pakistan’s 240 million people and have long faced discrimination in the conservative Muslim country, often sidelined into low-paying jobs and sometimes the target of blasphemy charges.Along with other religious minorities, the community has often been targeted by Islamist militants over the years. Today, a wall clock inside All Saints giving the time of the blast as 11:43 am is preserved in its damaged state, its glass shattered.”The blast was so powerful that its marks are still visible on this wall — and those marks are not only on the wall, but they are also etched into our hearts as well,” said Emmanuel Ghori, a caretaker at the church. Addressing a Christmas ceremony in the capital Islamabad, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to protect religious minorities.”I want to make it clear that if any injustice is done to any member of a minority, the law will respond with full force,” he said.For Azzeka Victor Sadiq, whose father was killed and mother wounded in the blasts, “The intensity of the grief can never truly fade.””Whenever I come to the church, the entire incident replays itself before my eyes,” the 38-year-old teacher told AFP.

Aspiring prime minister and political heavyweight Tarique Rahman returned to Bangladesh on Thursday, ending 17 years in self-imposed exile with a promise to deliver safety and justice if his party wins next year’s elections.Huge crowds of joyous supporters waving flags, banners and posters welcomed Rahman, the son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia and acting chairman of her popular Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).”Today, I want to say that I have a plan for my country… a safe state that people have long hoped for,” Rahman, 60, said in a first speech after his homecoming.”It is time we build a country together. This country belongs to the people in the hills and the plains, to Muslims, Buddhists, Christians and Hindus.”A visibly emotional Rahman earlier took off his shoes, stood on the grass outside the airport and scooped up soil as a mark of reverence to his motherland.He waved to supporters before ducking into a convoy under tight security, according to video footage shared by his party.BNP backers gathered in the capital Dhaka since the early morning, plastering the streets with banners and festoons bearing images of Rahman, who is expected to take the reins from his ailing mother.Patriotic songs blared from loudspeakers while cut-outs depicted the seasoned politician riding a stallion.Party supporter Alamgir Hossain said Bangladesh was in a “dire situation” and that only Rahman “can fix it”.Rahman, known in Bangladesh as Tarique Zia, left Bangladesh for London in 2008, following an arrest on corruption charges and after what he described as political persecution.As acting party chairman, Rahman will lead the BNP through the February 12 general elections — the first polls since a student-led uprising last year toppled the autocratic government of Sheikh Hasina.- ‘Repay the debt’ -The BNP is widely seen as an election frontrunner, with Rahman expected to be put forward as prime minister if his party wins a majority.Rahman’s 80-year-old mother Zia is undergoing treatment in intensive care at a hospital in Dhaka after years of ill health and imprisonment.Rahman said his mother had “sacrificed everything” for the country and that he had come to meet her and express “my gratitude”.Rahman’s return comes amid unrest over the killing of popular student leader Sharif Osman Hadi, a staunch India-critic who took part in last year’s mass uprising.Hadi, 32, was shot by masked assailants earlier this month in Dhaka, and later died of his wounds at a Singapore hospital.His death set off violent protests with mobs torching several buildings, including two major newspapers deemed to favour India and a prominent cultural institution.Mobs also threw stones at the Indian High Commission in the port city of Chattogram, where visa services have since been suspended.Rahman urged his supporters to remain vigilant “in the face of conspiracies”.”If the nation is to repay the… debt owed to its martyrs, it must build the country the people have long yearned for,” he said.- ‘Symbol of hope’ -Dhaka’s diplomatic ties with its historical ally New Delhi have worsened since the uprising, with ousted prime minister Hasina seeking refuge in India.India has said it was considering Bangladesh’s request to extradite Hasina, who was sentenced to death in absentia for orchestrating a deadly crackdown on the uprising.With anti-India sentiments rising in the majority Muslim nation, a Hindu garment worker was accused of blasphemy and lynched by a mob on December 18.Jahan Panna, a former BNP lawmaker, said she hoped Rahman’s return would end the “cycle of anarchy”.”Rahman is the symbol of hope for this country,” Panna, 55, told AFP.Rahman faced a slew of criminal cases, but since Hasina’s fall his most severe punishment has been overturned: a life sentence handed down in absentia for a 2004 grenade attack on a political rally. He denied the charges.In Britain, he kept a low profile but remained an outspoken figure on social media.In June, he met in London with Muhammad Yunus, the 85-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner leading the interim government until the February vote.Hasina’s Awami League party, a bitter rival of BNP, has been barred from contesting in the polls.