KARACHI, Pakistan (UCAN) -- Church leaders have expressed concern at increasing insecurity in Pakistan, hit by a string of bombings, and called for the army to refrain from the use of force.

Eleven people died and more than 50 were wounded when a bomb exploded on Jan. 14 evening in the busy Qaidabad area of Karachi, the country's largest city and main seaport, on its southern coast. This second major bomb attack of 2008 occurred less than a week after a Jan. 10 suicide bombing in Lahore, northeastern Pakistan, claimed the lives of 20 policemen and four bystanders, and injured 80 other people.

Mother Mary Rose Soares, superior of the Dominican Nuns of Perpetual Adoration in Karachi, told UCA News she learned of the latest blast when a well-wisher called afterward to tell the nuns to be careful.

"We do not watch much television and thus had no idea what catastrophe had struck near to us," she said. Her cloistered community of 12 nuns lives in Landhi, near Qaidabad. "We have now increased our daily devotion for the suicide bombers to come to their senses and to the right path," she said.

According to Father Arthur Charles, vicar general of Karachi archdiocese, the security situation remains worrying despite the government's efforts to curb terrorism in the country. He said he does not subscribe to the view that "outside forces" are involved in the violence. The "horrible incidents." he said, "are the result of the frustration of insiders, the common people who feel hopeless and have nothing to live for."

The Pakistani Catholic bishops' National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) issued a statement on Jan. 11 condemning the latest attacks.

Archbishop Lawrence John Saldanha of Lahore and Peter Jacob, respectively the commission's chairperson and executive secretary, expressed deep sympathy for the bereaved families of those killed in the blasts. "It is sad to note that policemen and soldiers have become a target of massive suicide attacks while the safety of the common citizen and control of the crimes was dependent on them," the statement says.

It adds that with suicide bombing having become a device of mass murder in the country, the government urgently needs to revise its approach to matters of security and governance.

The Church, along with other members of civil society, has condemned the involvement of the army and the intelligence agency in politics.

The NCJP statement reiterates recommendations it and other groups have already made: "The country should return to democracy as soon as possible and the government should review its internal and foreign policy to make protection of human rights its priority." Referring to the army's battle against militants, it advises "the policy of use of force in the troubled areas should be put off."

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf seized power in 1999 through a bloodless military coup, overthrowing a democratically elected government. Opposition leaders accuse Musharraf of blindly allying itself with the United States and ordering repressive anti-terror operations that have contributed to the rise of Islamic militancy, especially in the absence of democracy.

Militants seeking the overthrow of the government and strict adherence to Shari'a, the Islamic legal code, have been blamed for a spate of attacks over the last 12 months, including the Dec. 27 murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Government troops are currently fighting militants in several federally ruled tribal areas on the western border with Afghanistan and in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, which also shares the border. In addition, the army is attempting to suppress separatist forces in Balochistan, the southwestern province.

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