Thousands of angry mourners shouted "Revenge, revenge" today at the funerals of 15 Pakistani Christians in the church where they were massacred by six men firing assault rifles a day earlier.
Their bishop tried to calm them.
"We don't believe in revenge. We don't believe in violence. We forgive the blood of our martyrs," Andrew Francis, the Catholic bishop of Multan district in central Punjab province, told the mourners before the coffins were taken to the graveyard.
Outside the church of St Dominic's, and around Christian monuments across Muslim Pakistan, police reinforcements had been deployed to protect the tiny minority after the worst single massacre of Christians in Pakistan's 54-year history.
Police patrolled the streets of Bahawalpur in central Punjab province, and security has been increased around the mosques, churches and temples of the city.
More than 100 activists from militant Islamic groups were detained in overnight raids in southern districts of Punjab, police sources said.
"We call on the government to ban all militant groups," one Christian leader demanded in an address to hundreds of mourners on the lawns in front of St Dominic's.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said he had ordered a manhunt to track down the gunmen and would address the nation on the tragedy and his policies to prevent future massacres.
"My government and law enforcement agencies will do everything possible so that whoever has committed this gruesome act will be brought to book and given exemplary punishment," he said.