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| Driver survives |
Five female teachers in Pakistan
have been slaughtered by Islamic militants bent on keeping women and girls away
from education.
They were murdered in a New Year's
Day ambush on the van carrying them home from their jobs at a community centre
and primary school in the north-west of the country.
The teachers and two health workers
- one man and one woman - were killed this afternoon in the conservative Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
It was in this region that a Taliban gunman shot 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai in the head last October for criticizing the militants and promoting girls' education. She is currently recovering in Britain.
The attack was a reminder of the
risks faced by educators and aid workers, especially women, in an area where
Islamic militants often target women and girls trying to get an education.
Many militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
province oppose female education and have blown up schools and killed female
educators as a way to discourage girls from getting an education.
The workers were on their way home from a community centre in the town of Swabi where they were working at a primary school and adjoining medical center. Gunmen on motorcycles opened fire with automatic weapons, said Javed Akhtar, executive director of the non-governmental organization Support With Working Solutions.
The NGO conducts programs in the
education and health sectors and runs a primary school and a medical clinic at
the community center in Swabi, he said.
Swabi police chief Abdur Rasheed
said most of the women killed were between the ages of 20 and 22. He said the
four gunmen who used two motorcycles fled the scene and have not been
apprehended.
No group has claimed responsibility
for the incident.
Dailymail.co.uk
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