Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Six World Vision Aid Workers Killed In Pakistan


From NPR-

Suspected militants armed with assault rifles and a homemade bomb attacked the offices of a U.S.-based Christian aid group helping earthquake survivors in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing six Pakistani employees, police and the organization said.

The assault prompted World Vision, a major international humanitarian group, to suspend its operations in Pakistan. Other aid organizations condemned the attack but said it would not lead them to curtail their own activities.

Extremists have killed other foreign aid group employees in Pakistan and accused such organizations of working against Islam, greatly hampering efforts to raise living standards in the desperately poor region. Many groups have already scaled down operations in the northwest or pulled out altogether.

The attack took place in Ogi, a small town in Mansehra district, which was badly hit by the 2005 Kashmir earthquake.

"It was a brutal and senseless attack," said Dean Owen, World Vision spokesman in Seattle, Washington. "It was completely unexpected, unannounced and unprovoked."

Islamists often target Christian groups, which they accuse of trying to convert Muslims.

Another World Vision spokesman said the group, which was founded 60 years ago in the U.S. and is one of the world's largest and most well-funded Christian aid organizations, had suspended operations across Pakistan as a result of the attack.

More here-

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124520398&sc=17&f=1001

No comments: