Three Killed As Armed Men Storm British Aid Agency in Pakistan

Gunmen killed three employees of a British aid agency in north-west Pakistan yesterday in an attack that sparked fears of further violence against foreign organizations.

Up to a dozen men armed with guns and grenades burst into the offices of Plan International in Mansehra, 45 miles north of Islamabad, opening fire indiscriminately before setting off three explosions.

Three employees died and several more were injured, one critically, said Mia Haglund-Heelas, Plan's country director. The office was burned to the ground. "I'm so shocked. We have no idea what is behind this," she said.

A local police official, Mazhar ul-Haq, said the militants herded the aid workers into a room before opening fire.

The ferocity of the assault alarmed other western aid agencies operating in Mansehra, a small town that is the hub of development activity for communities affected by the 2005 earthquake that killed at least 73,000 people.

Last night offices were closed and staff ordered to stay at home as aid managers scrambled to work out who was behind the attack and whether more were to come.

"Nobody knows whether it's the start of a campaign targeting international NGOs or just sheer bad luck," said Dorothy Blane, of Concern. "Until now Mansehra has been seen as a safe haven. Movement was restricted during things like the cartoon protests but nobody saw it as a dangerous spot. This has changed everything."

Aid workers in the earthquake zone have been worried by a series of violent incidents in recent months. Last October Care International's offices in nearby Batagram were riddled with gunfire and a bomb exploded outside a compound run by a local NGO, wounding eight people.

But the attack on Plan was unusual, both for its ferocity and because the group, which has been working in Mansehra since 1997, has deep roots in the area. "They have a well-established history in the area. That's why this is very shocking," said Graham Strong, of World Vision.

Haglund-Heelas said the group had not received any threats. "We had not experienced any complicated relationships with the community, nothing controversial," she said.

Staff members were too distraught to speculate on who might have been behind the attack, she said. In the UK, Plan's chief executive, Tom Miller, said he was closing operations across Pakistan.

The threat of violence was underscored in Rawalpindi, 10 miles south of Islamabad, where a suicide bomber killed an army general as his car stalled at traffic lights on a busy road. The attacker, reportedly disguised as a beggar, killed the army's surgeon-general, Lieutenant General Mushtaq Baig, two staff members and five passersby. Baig was the most senior officer to die in a string of suicide attacks on military targets that began 15 months ago.

"It's a very, very sad day," said an interior ministry spokesman, Javed Iqbal Cheema. "This man was dedicated to saving life, and now he has given his own."

Rawalpindi is home to Pakistan's military headquarters and is the city where opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on December 27.

Both attacks starkly underline the challenge facing her Pakistan People's party, which won a majority of seats in the election and is now poised to form a coalition government.

The failure to stem rising violence is considered a major failing of President Pervez Musharraf, whose party suffered a heavy defeat in the elections. Musharraf's spokesman, Rashid Qureshi, dismissed suggestions by visiting US senators that the former general might "gracefully" retire.

"I don't think he needs to respond to anything that is said by these people," he said.