Very sad. Inna lillahi wa inna elahi raji’oon.
I hope that the new government is capable of taking firm action against such militancy.
Gunmen killed three employees of a British aid agency in north-west Pakistan yesterday in an attack that sparked fears of further violence against foreign organisations.
Up to a dozen men armed with guns and grenades burst into the offices of Plan International in Mansehra, 45 miles north of Islamabad, opening fire indiscriminately before setting off three explosions.
Three employees died and several more were injured, one critically, said Mia Haglund-Heelas, Plan’s country director. The office was burned to the ground. “I’m so shocked. We have no idea what is behind this,” she said.
A local police official, Mazhar ul-Haq, said the militants herded the aid workers into a room before opening fire.
The ferocity of the assault alarmed other western aid agencies operating in Mansehra, a small town that is the hub of development activity for communities affected by the 2005 earthquake that killed at least 73,000 people.
Last night offices were closed and staff ordered to stay at home as aid managers scrambled to work out who was behind the attack and whether more were to come.
“Nobody knows whether it’s the start of a campaign targeting international NGOs or just sheer bad luck,” said Dorothy Blane, of Concern. “Until now Mansehra has been seen as a safe haven. Movement was restricted during things like the cartoon protests but nobody saw it as a dangerous spot. This has changed everything.”
Aid workers in the earthquake zone have been worried by a series of violent incidents in recent months. Last October Care International’s offices in nearby Batagram were riddled with gunfire and a bomb exploded outside a compound run by a local NGO, wounding eight people.
But the attack on Plan was unusual, both for its ferocity and because the group, which has been working in Mansehra since 1997, has deep roots in the area. “They have a well-established history in the area. That’s why this is very shocking,” said Graham Strong, of World Vision.
Haglund-Heelas said the group had not received any threats. “We had not experienced any complicated relationships with the community, nothing controversial,” she said.
Staff members were too distraught to speculate on who might have been behind the attack, she said. In the UK, Plan’s chief executive, Tom Miller, said he was closing operations across Pakistan.