In this image taken on Tuesday, July 14, 2009 troops patrol in troubled Maidan in the district of Dir, Pakistan. Pakistani troops killed 13 militants in the latest clashes in the Swat Valley, the army said. (AP Photo/Ruhullah Shakir)
(AP)
A veteran U.N. official due to retire soon was shot dead along with a guard while resisting kidnappers Thursday at a northwest Pakistan refugee camp, the latest indication of the peril facing humanitarian workers aiding those uprooted by army offensives against the Taliban.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack at Kacha Garhi, a camp on the outskirts of Peshawar city, but observers said it was likely the work of a criminal gang, and not Taliban militants. Overall security has deteriorated in Pakistan as the Taliban gained strength in the past decade, and kidnappings for ransom, among other crimes, have soared.
The attack occurred around the time Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited a nearby camp as part of a trip to meet with Pakistani officials.
The slain U.N. worker was Zill-e-Usman, a Pakistani in charge of the U.N.'s relief efforts at the camp. The chief of the U.N. refugee agency in Pakistan, Guenet Guebre-Christos, said the 59-year-old Usman had worked for the U.N. for nearly 30 years and was set to retire. A U.N. statement said he left behind a wife and four children.
"He was quite an old hand, and he was looking forward to his retirement," Guebre-Christos told The Associated Press.
She strongly condemned the attack, calling it a "cowardly assassination." The U.N. said in a statement that a camp guard was also killed, while another guard and a local U.N. worker were wounded.
Islam Khan, a guard at the Kacha Garhi camp, said four men drove up to Usman's office in a blue car. Usman was coming out of his office, and the men tried to kidnap him.
Local police chief Ghayoor Afridi said Usman resisted the kidnapping attempts.
A camp guard then opened fire and a gunfight ensued, in which one of the assailants was also wounded, Khan said.
The attack is the latest to rattle aid organizations who have stepped up efforts in Pakistan, where some 2 million people have fled their homes in the past several months because of military offensives against Taliban insurgents in the northwest. Around 200,000 have ended up in relief camps. Most of the refugees are from the Swat Valley and surrounding districts.
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