Six women and a man working for a Pakistani health and education charity involved in vaccinations were shot dead on their way home from a community centre yesterday, officials said.
Police said they were investigating whether there was any link to the Taliban or other Islamist militants, who have been blamed for past attacks on charity workers and on health education projects in particular.
The attack took place about 65 kilometres northwest of the capital in the Swabi district. The victims were all Pakistanis and worked at a local centre called Ujalla, which runs a school and a health clinic.
Five of the women were teachers, the sixth was a health worker and the man worked as a health technician, officials said.
They were being driven home from the village community centre when they were attacked, said Abdul Rashid Khan, Swabi police chief.
“Four men came on two motorbikes. They attacked their van, a Toyota HiAce. They opened fire to the right and left of the van and fled,” Khan said. “Six women and a man have died. The driver is injured,” he added.
Police said the women were aged 20 to 35 and the male health technician was 52. Doctor Mohammad Sheerin at the local Bacha Khan medical complex said one man had been critically wounded and evacuated to the northwestern city of Peshawar.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Police said it was investigating whether there was a link to Islamist militancy but the head of the charity said it had not been threatened despite working on polio immunisations.
The Taliban banned polio vaccinations in the tribal region of Waziristan, condemning the campaign as a cover for espionage after the jailing of a doctor who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden using a hepatitis vaccination programme.
Last month nine polio vaccination workers were shot dead in a string of attacks in Karachi and the northwest.
The Taliban denied responsibility for the killings, but the deaths prompted the UN children’s agency and the World Health Organization to suspend work on polio campaigns.
Javed Akhtar, executive director of the charity, said the organisation provides vaccines, including during last month’s campaign, but said he did not know if its polio work was a motive for the attack.
“The centre is involved in a child immunisation programme. It also provides polio drops,” he said, adding that his organisation had received Western funds, including from the German government, through a Pakistani poverty alleviation fund.