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dpa
Islamabad
Gunmen in north-western Pakistan on Monday shot and killed at least four female aid workers, police said, amid a resurgence of violence in the former al-Qaeda stronghold region.
The women from a Pakistani NGO working on poverty alleviation and conflict mitigation were targeted in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border, police official Zaneef Khan told dpa. North Waziristan had been under the control of various groups of Islamist militants including al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban’s Haqqani network until they were chased into neighbouring Afghanistan in a series of offensives starting in 2014.
Violence has flared in the region in recent months amid reports that Pakistani Taliban were trying to regroup and recapture their former base.
The women were travelling to Waziristan from the nearby town Bannu when their car was chased and attacked, another police officer Dost Eid Khan said. The incident occurred days after four Pakistani soldiers were killed in the same region in a shoot-out when a group of Taliban gunmen tried to overrun a military checkpoint.
Islamabad
Gunmen in north-western Pakistan on Monday shot and killed at least four female aid workers, police said, amid a resurgence of violence in the former al-Qaeda stronghold region.
The women from a Pakistani NGO working on poverty alleviation and conflict mitigation were targeted in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border, police official Zaneef Khan told dpa. North Waziristan had been under the control of various groups of Islamist militants including al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban’s Haqqani network until they were chased into neighbouring Afghanistan in a series of offensives starting in 2014.
Violence has flared in the region in recent months amid reports that Pakistani Taliban were trying to regroup and recapture their former base.
The women were travelling to Waziristan from the nearby town Bannu when their car was chased and attacked, another police officer Dost Eid Khan said. The incident occurred days after four Pakistani soldiers were killed in the same region in a shoot-out when a group of Taliban gunmen tried to overrun a military checkpoint.
