ISLAMABAD, Jan 1:
Seven charity workers including six women involved in vaccinations and teaching were today killed in Pakistan by unidentified gunmen who ambushed a car carrying them in the country’s restive northwest.
The gunmen ambushed the car near the remote Sher Afzal Banda area of Swabi district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province this afternoon.
The NGO workers were returning from a community centre.
Six women and a man were killed in the shooting, district police chief Abdul Rashid told reporters. The driver of the car was injured.
He was taken to a nearby hospital and was out of danger, Rashid said.
The victims worked for the NGO Ujala that is engaged in health and education programmes.
Four gunmen were involved in the attack, officials said.
Police have launched a search operation but were unable to trace the attackers. No group has claimed responsibility for the incident.
The police said they were investigating whether there was any link to the Taliban or other Islamist militants, who have been blamed for past attacks on charity workers and on health education projects.
The Pakistani Taliban have banned polio vaccinations in restive Waziristan, saying that the campaign was a cover for espionage after the jailing of a doctor who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden using a hepatitis vaccination programme.
In December, nine polio vaccination workers were shot dead in a string of attacks in Karachi and the northwest.
Though the Taliban denied responsibility for the killings, the deaths prompted the UN children’s agency and the World Health Organization to suspend work on polio campaigns.
Meanwhile, four persons were killed and 50 others injured today when a bomb planted on a motorcycle went off near a park close to Mutthaida Qaumi Movement headquarters where the party had just finished holding a massive rally.
The blast occurred at Ayesha Manzil intersection, located a short distance from Jinnah Ground where the Muttahida Qaumi Movement had organised a rally this afternoon.
People leaving the rally were hit by the blast at about 7.15 pm, witnesses and police officials said.
Four persons were killed by the blast, said Sagheer Ahmed, the Health Minister of Sindh province.
DIG Asif Ejaz Sheikh told the media that 50 injured people were admitted to several nearby hospitals.
Officials at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital said three of the injured were in a serious condition. Women and children were among the injured. The bomb was planted in a motorcycle parked near a maternity home.
Many persons were hit by ball bearings packed into the bomb, which was triggered by remote control, DIG Sheikh said.
Three buses and five vehicles standing near the motorcycle were damaged by the blast, which was heard from several kilometres away.
The explosion also damaged nearby buildings and shops.
Police cordoned off the area and launched a search operation. Rescue operations were hampered by a traffic snarl and the large number of people who gathered in the area.
The blast caused panic and fear in the city and led to massive traffic jams and bottlenecks with shops and petrol pumps closing down.
Though MQM leaders have been killed in target killings in the past, this is the first time that terrorists have directly targeted the MQM in a bomb attack.
MQM, which is the single largest party in Pakistan’s biggest city, has its headquarters close to Aisha Manzil and the Jinnah Park is used regularly for its rallies.
The blast took place just after MQM chief Altaf Hussain had finished addressing the rally via telephone from London. (PTI)
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