PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Four women hosting empowerment workshops were shot dead in a volatile area in Pakistan on Monday, which used to be a base for the Taliban, local police and the women’s employer said.
The team was hired by Bravo College of Technology in Peshawar to help local women acquire vocational skills such as sewing in North Waziristan, said Fayaz Khan, the college’s chief executive.
“Is this the way to give back to someone for the hard work they did for the poor?” Khan telephonically said. “Their role has been tremendous for the local community.”
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The women were shot in an apparent targeted attack as they marched through a deserted village near the city of Mirali in the tribal district of North Waziristan, police chief Shafiullah Gandapur told NBC News.
North Waziristan runs along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan and serves as a base for the Pakistani Taliban and other militants, including Al Qaeda, until 2014, when the army said it had cleared the region of insurgents.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
The incident comes amid an increase in attacks led by the Pakistani Taliban in the deeply conservative area in recent months, and amid concerns that the insurgents may regroup.
“The tribal district of North Waziristan has long suffered from militants,” Gandapur said by telephone. “The security situation has improved, but we still have a lot of problems.”
The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, is separate from the Afghan Taliban but has a similar ideology. The group, founded in 2007, aims to overthrow the Pakistani government and to form a government that is in line with their strict interpretation of Islam.
While the Taliban operate in different areas in Pakistan, they currently do not control any specific area. In the past, in areas under their control, the Pakistani group banned girls’ education and women could not work. Non-profit organizations were also banned from acting.
Proponents of girls’ education have also been targeted. A member of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the shooting and serious injury of Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai in 2012. She angered the Taliban by promoting the education of girls.
To this day, women working for charities run a risk in the conservative tribal areas of Pakistan, where many men and militants reject their efforts to empower women in the local community and paint them as skimps of the West.
“The female social workers came here from villages and the non-profit organization did not notify us before sending these females to this erratic area,” said Gandapur police chief. “If they had informed us before their visit, we would have provided them with security and possibly avoided this unfortunate incident.”
Police said they had launched a “search-and-strike” operation to try to arrest the attackers.
Khan, from Bravo College of Technology, said the project to train men and women in North Waziristan was a joint venture with Sabawon, a national organization that helps poor and vulnerable communities, including through education, gender empowerment and the provision of improved social services and facilities. .
Sabawon issued a statement on Monday expressing concern over the deaths of the four female workers at Bravo College, but said they did not represent Sabawon.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
