Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's prime minister, has warned that talks may be abandoned with Taliban militants suspected of ordering the suicide bombing of a Christian church which killed 81 worshippers as they emerged from Sunday Mass.
His comments were made in London on Sunday night during a stopover en route to the United States where he is expected to meet Barack Obama and explain his earlier decision to release the Afghan Taliban's former deputy leader and open new talks with Taliban militants in Pakistan.
The attack by two suicide bombers, who detonated their explosive vests just as more than 350 worshippers were leaving All Saints Church in Peshawar's Kohita neighbourhood provoked angry demonstrations throughout Pakistan today. It is believed to be the worst massacre of Christians in the country since its independence in 1947.
More than half of those killed were women and children.
The attack has increased pressure on Mr Sharif who had won cross-party and military support earlier this month for a new dialogue with the TTP to bring an end to its insurgency.
"We had proposed the process of dialogue with good intentions and this enjoyed the backing of all the political parties," he said, but following the attack on All Saints, "the government will be unable to proceed as it intended."
Following the attack, several hundred demonstrators smashed windows at the Lady Reading Hospital in the city where many of the 100 injured were treated.
Around 600 protesters blocked a main highway in Islamabad, and demonstrations were also held in Lahore and Karachi, calling for greater security for Pakistan's minorities.
An estimated 100 Christians gathered in front of All Saints Church where the suicide bombers had left scenes of carnage on Sunday. They voiced their anger at Pakistan's former cricket captain Imran Khan, whose Tehreek-e-Insaf party controls the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa provincial government. They chanted "Imran is a dog" and said he was soft on the Taliban.
Jandullah, a militant faction believed to be part of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack, although a TTP spokesman later denied its members had been involved.
Christians account for only two per cent of Pakistan's 180 million people, but they have suffered an increase in violence in recent years. Shahbaz Bhatti, the Christian minorities minister in the last government was assassinated in 2011 and seven Christians were burned to death when their homes and church were set ablaze by a Muslim mob in 2009.
Worshippers at All Saints said they expect the death toll from Sunday's explosion to rise much higher because many of the wounded are in critical condition in hospital.
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