Pakistan aid groups workers killed
2013-01-02 21:43
Peshawar - Aid groups on Wednesday demanded greater
protection in Pakistan amid concerns of a new spike in violence after seven
charity workers were shot dead and their organisation suspended operations.
The six women - five of them teachers and one a health
visitor - and a male health technician were ambushed by gunmen on motorbikes on
Tuesday as they were returning from a community centre in north-western
district Swabi.
They were buried on Wednesday. A 4-year-old boy was
spared when the gunmen removed him from the same vehicle before spraying it
with gunfire, police said.
The attack - which has not been claimed - adds to fears
that charity workers are increasingly vulnerable, particularly in the northwest
which is badly affected by Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked violence.
The charity, Support With Working Solution, has
temporarily suspended its operations, police told AFP.
"The NGO has suspended its activities for three days
to mourn the deaths. They will decide after three days whether to start work
again or not," said Abdul Rashid Khan, the police chief of Swabi.
The organisation runs dozens of health and education
projects, including polio vaccinations, in the north-western province of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa.
Health and education programmes, particularly those for
girls, are seen as being at particular risk.
Last month, nine polio vaccine workers were shot dead in
a string of incidents, forcing UN agencies to suspend a immunisation campaign,
and there are now concerns about a record number of deaths from measles in the
south.
On Wednesday, an umbrella organisation of around 200
charities in the northwest demanded better protection, but vowed to continue
working in order not to encourage "those who are opposed to
progress".
"We have to stand up and foil the nefarious designs
of anti-state elements who are bent upon destroying the fabric of civil
society. We all have to strengthen our voice otherwise we will perish,"
said the Pakhtunkhwa Civil Society Network.
It demanded government protection for charity workers
"vulnerable to the menace of terrorism" but some charity workers
express doubt about government capacity.
On 22 December, Bashir Bilour, a senior minister in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and eight others were killed in a suicide attack on a
political meeting claimed by the Taliban.
"How can a state protect its people if it can't
protect its ministers?" asked Imran Takkar, programme manager of the
Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child.
Islamabad says more than 35 000 people have been killed
as a result of terrorism in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the US.
Imtiaz Iltaf, police chief of Peshawar, said officers
were preparing a strategy to protect aid workers.
"We are in a state of war. The whole country is
facing an insurgency, so we are revising the present security steps and working
on a new strategy," he said.
