|
| A father of an aid worker, who was killed by gunmen, mourns the death of his daughter at a hospital in Swabi, Pakistan, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. Gunmen in northwest Pakistan killed at least five female teachers and two aid workers on Tuesday in an ambush on a van carrying workers home from their jobs at a community center, officials said. |
ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Gunmen on motorcycles sprayed a van carrying employees from a community center with bullets Tuesday, killing five female teachers and two aid workers, but sparing a child they took out of the vehicle before opening fire.
The director of the group that
the seven worked for says he suspects it may have been the latest in a
series of attacks targeting anti-polio efforts in Pakistan. Some
militants oppose the vaccination campaigns, accusing health workers of
acting as spies for the U.S. and alleging the vaccine is intended to
make Muslim children sterile.
Last month, nine
people working on an anti-polio vaccination campaign were shot and
killed. Four of those shootings were in the northwest where Tuesday's
attack took place.
The attack was another
reminder of the risks to women educators and aid workers from Islamic
militants who oppose their work. It was in the same conservative
province where militants shot and seriously wounded 15-year-old Malala
Yousufzai, an outspoken young activist for girls' education, in October.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest shootings.
The
teachers and health workers - one man and one woman - were killed in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on their way home from a community center in
the town of Swabi where they were employed at a medical clinic and
primary school. Their driver was also injured.
Javed
Akhtar, the director of Support With Working Solution, said the medical
clinic vaccinated children against polio, and many of the NGO's staff
had taken part in immunization campaigns.
Militants
in the province have blown up schools and killed female educators. They
have also kidnapped and killed aid workers, viewing them as promoting a
foreign, liberal agenda.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
province, formerly called the Northwest Frontier province, borders the
tribal areas of Pakistan along the frontier with Afghanistan to the
west. Militant groups such as the Taliban have used the tribal areas as a
stronghold from which to wage war both in Afghanistan and against the
Pakistani government. Often that violence has spilled over into Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province.
In 2007, the Taliban led
by Maulana Fazlullah took over the scenic Swat Valley, marking the
height of their strength there. The Pakistani military later pushed the
militant group from the valley, but the Taliban has repeatedly tried to
reassert itself.
The injured driver in Swabi
told investigators that the gunmen stopped the vehicle and removed a boy
- the son of one of the women - before indiscriminately opening fire,
said police officer Fazal Malik. The woman's husband rushed to the scene
after receiving a phone call alerting him to the shooting.
"I
left everything and rushed towards the spot. As I reached there I saw
their dead bodies were inside the vehicle and he (his son) was sitting
with someone," said Zain ul Hadi.
Swabi police
chief Abdur Rasheed said most of the women killed were between the ages
of 20 and 22. He said four gunmen on two motorcycles fled the scene and
have not been apprehended.
The NGO conducts
education and health programs and runs the community center in Swabi,
Akhtar said. The group has been active in the city since 1992, and
started the Ujala Community Welfare Center in 2010, he added. Ujala
means "light" in Urdu.
The center is financed by the Pakistani government's Poverty Alleviation Program and a German organization, said Akhtar.
He
said the NGO also runs health and education projects in the South
Waziristan tribal area, as well as health projects in the cities of Tank
and Dera Ismail Khan and the regions of Lower Dir and Upper Kurram. All
of those cities and regions are in northwest Pakistan, the area that
has been most affected by the ongoing fight with militants opposed to
the government.
Aid groups such as Support
With Working Solution often play a vital role in many areas of Pakistan
where the government has been unable to provide services such as medical
clinics or schools.
Many aid groups that also
work in the region are already familiar with the persistent threat
militant groups pose, but the scale and viciousness of Tuesday's attack
worried even veteran campaigners.
Maryam Bibi,
who founded an organization called Khwendo Kor, which carries out
education and development programs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the nearby
tribal areas, said she and many of her employees live in fear that they
will be targeted next.
"I'm really very
worried now because our girls go to the field. Our work is in the
villages," said Bibi. She said many of the female employees of such
organizations are already under pressure from family and a culture that
frowns on women working outside the home and mixing with men.
"On top of that, they're shot dead," she said.
In
some areas like the northwest, aid groups have had to work to overcome
community fears that they are promoting a foreign agenda at odds with
local traditions and values.
But many
residents in Swabi said the school and medical center provided a vital
service to the community, and they mourned those who were killed.
Murad
Khan said his daughter was studying at the primary school, which
provided free books and uniforms to students. He said many people in the
area are worried that the school and clinic will close.
"This school is like a gift for all of us, the poor people of the village," he said. "People in our area are sad."
The
NGO director said all projects will be suspended as security measures
are reviewed but he vowed that they would resume their work soon.
He said the NGO had not received any threats before the attack.
In
the southern city of Karachi, officials said four people were killed
when a bomb in a parked motorcycle exploded amid a crowd of buses for
political workers returning from the rally held by the Muttahida Qaumi
Movement. The MQM is the dominant political party in Karachi.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Dr. Saghir Ahmed, the provincial health minister, said that in addition to the dead, 41 people were injured.
