Aid group halts Pakistan work after employee slain

[sparklingway]

Aid group halts Pakistan work after employee slain​

Tuesday, 15 Jun, 2010

ISLAMABAD: The international aid group Mercy Corps has suspended its operations in Pakistan after kidnappers killed one of its employees, the agency said Tuesday, the latest fallout from attacks on aid groups in the troubled nation.


Four Pakistani employees of Mercy Corps were abducted Feb. 18 as they drove to one of their offices in Quetta, the capital of southwest Baluchistan province. The staffers were working on health programs in the restive region.


A Mercy Corps press release said the agency recently learned that a 52-year-old driver in the group, identified only as Habibullah, had been slain earlier this month. There was no word on the fate of the other three staffers.


''It is shocking and tragic that someone dedicated to improving the lives of Pakistanis should be the target of such senseless violence,'' Mercy Corps chief executive Neal Keny-Guyer said in the statement.


The Portland, Ore.-based agency did not say how long its work will be suspended. Mercy Corps has been working in Pakistan since 1986 on a variety of health, economic development and emergency relief programs.


As extremism has risen and the security situation deteriorated in Pakistan, aid groups including those overseen by the United Nations have been attacked and forced to scale back their activities.


Militants in particular have accused such organizations of working against Islam, greatly hampering efforts to raise living standards in the desperately poor country.


Ordinary crime also has been on the rise, with kidnappings spiking throughout Pakistan. While many kidnappers are attracted by ransom money, some of the profits are believed to reach the coffers of extremist groups.

 

[i am your fear]

QUETTA: US-based charity Mercy Corps on Monday shut offices in two of Pakistan's four provinces, citing serious security concerns following the killing of one of its drivers.

Three Mercy Corps aid workers and their driver were kidnapped in February in Qila Saifullah district, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) northwest of Quetta, the capital of oil and gas rich Balochistan province.

The charity shut the offices hours after the kidnappers released a video of the killing of the driver, Habibullah.

“Mercy Corps has shut 40 offices in Baluchistan and four in Sindh in protest against insecurity and the government's failure to recover our kidnapped workers,” provincial head of the charity Doctor Saeedullah Khan told AFP.

“The kidnappers have slaughtered our driver and kept another three workers hostage. This situation has triggered a sense of insecurity among out staff, leaving us with no option but to shut our offices,” Khan said.

He said that the kidnappers were demanding 100 million rupees (one million dollars) as a ransom for the other three hostages.

Akbar Hussain Durrani, a senior government official in Quetta, said the kidnappers are from a criminal gang. The province borders Afghanistan and Iran, and is rife with sectarian insurgency, crime and militants.

 

[i am your fear]

can any Pakistan member tell in details whats going on

 

[Spring Onion]

can any Pakistan member tell in details whats going on

Mercy Corps' workers were kidnapped by BLA terrorists and one of them is killed. So the organisation has announced stopping work in Balochistan.

It happens often

 

[RescueRanger]

This is not the first time or the last time INGOs have been attacked in remote areas, Sibi, Bhimber, Mansehra, Balakot, WatPaga, Quetta. And to be frankly honest both the Ministry of Interior and Home Ministry need to do more for these orginisations operational security.

Whilst the overall burden of law and order is on the government, the agency should also exercise a certain degree of threat assessment and security management.

That being said, this does not resolve the goverment of any responsibility in providing security for the local staff, the ministry of interior has already banned the long term stay of "international experts" in hi-risk areas and permission needs to be saught from the ministry prior to their travel to the region.

But little or no action is taken to safeguard the security of local workers. Perhaps the government should re-establish the Balochistan NGO security fourm = BINGO: Balochistan International NGO

Risks of Aid Work in Pakistan | Security Management