Pakistani police say militants have attacked the office of a Christian
aid group in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, killing six
people and wounding several others.
Police say the assailants threw grenades and opened fire at a World Vision office (in the town of Oghi)
in Mansehra district Wednesday. World Vision identified those killed as
Pakistani employees of the agency. Police say two women were among the
dead.
A spokesman for the aid group tells VOA (Deewa radio) that
all of the victims were Muslims. He said the attack is the single
deadliest in World Vision's 60 year history and the organization has
suspended its operations in Pakistan.
In other news, Pakistani intelligence officials say two suspected U.S.
drone strikes have killed at least 12 people in a northwest tribal
region.
The strikes took place in Mizarkhel village, some 50 kilometers west of
Miranshah, the main town in the tribal North Waziristan district.
Mansehra district has been a hub for international relief efforts for
survivors of the October 2005 earthquake that killed 75,000 people.
The U.S.-based World Vision is one of the world's largest and
well-funded Christian aid groups. The group says it has helped more
than 100,000 Pakistanis through its earthquake relief efforts.
Militants have attacked aid workers in the Mansehra district before. In
2008, gunmen raided the local office of the British-run aid group Plan
International and killed four of its Pakistani staff members.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has extended the
term of the head of the country's main intelligence agency. The prime
minister's office said Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha was due to
retire this month, but will remain director general of the military's
Inter-Services Intelligence for another year.