6 die in attack on US aid group

March 11, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

ISLAMABAD

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

The assault took place in Ogi, a small town in Mansehra district that was badly hit by the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, which killed about 80,000 people and left 3 million people homeless.

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

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.

Wednesday’s attack may have been prompted by World Vision’s religious affiliation. Islamists often target Christian groups, which they accuse of trying to convert Muslims.

World Vision was founded 60 years ago in the U.S. and is one of the world’s largest and most well-funded Christian aid organizations.