Czech NGO suspended work after killing of 9 workers in Balkh Afghanistan
Kabul, Afghanistan: Czech NGO People in Need (PIN) has suspended its services in Afghanistan after its nine workers including one woman were killed in Balkh
According to details, nine employees of the NGO, including a woman, were killed in Balkh on Tuesday morning allegedly by Afghan Taliban. PIN was working to help Afghan farmers in remote areas since 2001.
In a statement posted on its website and issued by the NGO on Tuesday evening, it regrets to announce suspension of its projects in Afghanistan after murders of his nine workers.
Statement further said:
“With deep sorrow we inform that a PIN field office in Zare, Northern Afghanistan, was attacked in the night from 1st to 2nd June. Nine of our national colleagues were killed. Investigation is ongoing, the identity of the attackers is not known. PIN has been working in the area since 2002.
We hereby express our deepest condolences to the families of our colleagues, respect to their work, and we condemn this attack, unprecedented in its brutality. PIN immediately suspends all work in Afghanistan and is adopting measures to strengthen the security of its employees in the country.”
Amnesty International condemned the attack highlighting that “targeting civilians for attack – including humanitarian workers – is a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention.” Amnesty International’s Afghanistan Researcher Horia Mosadiq said:
No- one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack on the aid workers in Balkh but Deputy chief of the provincial Afghan police, Razaq Qaderi, attributed the attack to the Taliban.
He also added that an investigation has been opened to shed light into the matter, although no arrests have been made.
PIN commenced work in Afghanistan in 2001 with the arrival of US troops and since then has been carrying out different projects in education, hygiene and agriculture in backward districts.
Foreign humanitarian organisations are common targets in Afghanistan. Last week, Afghan security forces released an aid worker of the German Society for International Development, kidnapped a month ago by the insurgent group in the northern province of Kunduz. Afghans as a nation are considered “untrustworthy” by travelers and foreigners historically and that is the reason famous travel writers of past used to minimize their stay in Afghanistan while travelling from Central Asia to South Asia.
