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ISNA is Outraged by Taliban Murder of Relief Workers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Source: ISNA
 
(Plainfield, IN Aug 7, 2010) The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the killing of eight volunteer medical aid workers yesterday morning in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan.  According to a Taliban spokesman, the workers were shot because they ignored an order to stop and that afterward they found evidence that the group were American spies and were preaching Christianity.  The team was comprised of nurses, optometrists, primary care physicians, dentists, and interpreters from the United States, Afghanistan, Germany and Great Britain.
 
Two other members of the ten person medical team were shot and injured in the attack.  A spokesperson from the International Assistance Mission charity (IAM), of which the team was a part of, stated that the team attacked was filled with volunteer medical doctors returning from a trip to provide eye treatment and medical services to remote villages in northern Afghanistan.
 
Dirk Frans, the Director of IAM, said, "We are a humanitarian organization.  We had no security people.  We had no armed guards.  We had no weapons."  He stated that IAM treats more than 250,000 Afghans each year and has been working peacefully in the region since 1966.
 
ISNA President Dr. Ingrid Mattson responded to news of the killings, stating, "These murders are against every foundation of Islam.  The killing of unarmed civilians is a most serious crime, but then to try to justify it by claiming that these individuals were Christian is a deeper level of depravity.  It does not matter what religious faith motivated these innocent relief workers, they were doing good work for the people of Afghanistan and absolutely did not deserve this terrible end to their lives.  We pray for their families and everyone affected by the tragic loss of these courageous humanitarians."
 
ISNA urges all community members to join them in prayer for the lives of those lost and all those affected by this tragedy.


Contact:
Sarah Thompson
Communications Coordinator
317-839-1816
sthompson@isna.net