Pakistan: Agency suspends aid after hostage death

More Islamic gratatude to NGO's who's only goal is to help poor people live a better life.  In this case, as with most other murders of non-Muslims, the government of Pakistan sides with the Muslim murderers.

FROM ADNKRONOS.COM:

Pakistan: Agency suspends aid after hostage death

Islamabad, 15 June (AKI) - The international aid agency Mercy Corps has suspended its operations in Pakistan after kidnappers killed one of its employees, the agency said on Tuesday. Four Pakistani employees of Mercy Corps were abducted on 18 February as they drove to one of their offices in Quetta, the capital of southwest Baluchistan province. The staffers were working on health programmes in the restive region.

In a statement, the US-based agency said it had learned that a 52-year-old driver from the group, identified only as Habibullah, had been slain earlier this month. There was no word on the fate of the other three staffers.

''It is shocking and tragic that someone dedicated to improving the lives of Pakistanis should be the target of such senseless violence,'' Mercy Corps chief executive Neal Keny-Guyer said in a statement.

Saeedullah Khan, head of Mercy Corps operations in Quetta, told the BBC that a videotape of its employee being murdered had been sent to the organisation, with the ultimatum that the remaining three would also be killed unless a ransom of 100m rupees ($1.2m; £800,000) was handed over.

Khan said the government had done little to try to get the hostages released.

Mercy Corps has been working in Pakistan since 1986 on a variety of health, economic development and emergency relief programmes. The Oregon-based agency did not indicate whether the suspension was temporary or permanent.

As the security situation has recently deteriorated in Pakistan, there have been more attacks on aid groups including those run by the United Nations.

Militants in particular have accused such organizations of working against Islam, greatly hampering efforts to raise living standards in the desperately poor country.