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PAKISTAN-UNREST
Gunmen kill four female aid workers in northwest Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb 22, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Four women aid workers were
gunned down Monday in a restive part of northwestern Pakistan, police said,
as a fresh wave of extremist violence rattles the Afghan borderlands.
The aid workers were ambushed by two gunmen as they were driving through a
village in North Waziristan district, according to local police chief
Shafiullah Gandapur, who said just one passenger survived the assault.
“No one has claimed responsibility for the attack so far but it was surely
an act of terrorism,” he told AFP.
Gandapur said the aid workers were affiliated with a programme run by a
local institute to develop household skills for women.
The incident and death toll was confirmed by Rasul Khan, another local
police official.
The so-called tribal areas along the Afghan border remain notorious for
the availability of cheap guns, drugs and smuggled goods.
The region was once home to a wide array of jihadist groups and was a focal
point in the global war on terror.
Attacks have decreased in recent years following a series of military
offensives against homegrown and foreign militants.
In 2014, the army launched a massive operation to wipe out militant bases
in North Waziristan aimed at ending a near decade-long insurgency that cost
thousands of lives.
But militant groups are still able to carry out sporadic, isolated
assaults.
A recent surge in attacks targeting security forces along the Afghan border
has sparked fears that jihadist groups may be regrouping.
BSS/AFP/RY/1550hrs