United Nations officials say a Pakistani employee has been killed and
his guard wounded during a kidnapping attempt in a refugee camp in
northwest Pakistan.
U.N. officials say Zil-e-Usman was working at the Kacha Garhi camp near
the city of Peshawar when gunmen tried to kidnap him and then shot him
in the chest. The U.N. worker was rushed to a hospital where he was
pronounced dead. A guard working for another aid agency also was killed
in the crossfire.
Zil-e-Usman was 59. He was involved in relief efforts at the refugee camp.
Several employees of the United Nations and other aid agencies have
been targeted by Taliban attacks in the past year. In June, militants
bombed an upscale hotel in Peshawar that was popular with foreign aid
workers and journalists.
Separately, the United Nations expressed concern that Pakistan's
offensive against suspected militants in the South Waziristan tribal
region could displace hundreds of thousands more people.
U.N. Humanitarian Chief John Holmes told reporters Wednesday that as
many as half of the 500,000 people in South Waziristan could flee the
region if violence continues. Holmes, who just returned from northwest
Pakistan, said any new displaced refugees would join more than two
million other Pakistanis fleeing a similar offensive in the Swat Valley
region.
Pakistan's government is urging some of those people to return to Swat,
despite continuing fighting there. So far, only hundreds of displaced
families have returned home in recent days.