Death of a Good Samaritan: Taliban Says Aid Worker Killed for 'spreading Christianity'

Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility yesterday for the murder of a British aid worker in Kabul, accusing her of spreading Christianity. Gayle Williams, 34, was shot dead by two men on a motorcycle as she walked to the office of the Christian charity Serve.

Aid organizations in Afghanistan were last night assessing the security risks for their staff in response to the murder. So far this year, 29 aid workers, either foreign or Afghans employed by one of the 100-plus agencies in the country, have been killed.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the shooting. "This woman came to Afghanistan to teach Christianity to the people of Afghanistan," a spokesman said. "Our [leaders] issued a decree to kill this woman. This morning our people killed her in Kabul."

The street where the killing took place is wide and dusty, with few shops and many villas surrounded by high walls. The area is popular with NGOs and foreign companies.

"After I heard the shots I came and she was lying there," said a police officer, Del Agha, pointing at the pavement. "She was covered with blood, we put her in a police pick up truck and took her to the morgue."

Mullah Azizullah, imam of the nearby Shir Sham Mina mosque, called last Friday for the people to stop missionaries and proselytising activities. "We know for sure that the foreigners are proselytising Christianity in Afghanistan, some of them do it in daylight and others undercover," he said. "I took a list of their institutions to the intelligence, the police and the ministry of religious guidance but they didn't do anything. The sharia calls for the killing of those who convert and the people who proselytise should be killed too."

A resident, who did not want to be named, told the Guardian he had informed local Islamic organizations that "this NGO and specifically this woman are involved in converting Muslims. She has been living here for a long time and everyone knew what she was doing". Williams, who worked with disabled people, had recently been pulled out of the Kandahar, where she had been running a community project, because it was judged to be too dangerous.

Mike Lyth, the Carlisle-based chairman of the board of Serve (Serving Emergency Relief and Vocational Enterprises), said Williams had been working with the group for two and a half years, helping to rehabilitate disabled people into the community. He said that she would have changed her route to work or the time of the journey every day.

He dismissed the Taliban's claim that Williams was killed because she was spreading Christianity. "That's just an opportunistic jumping on the bandwagon" he said. "It certainly has no truth to it at all. We are Christians - that is what gives us the motivation to go into a dangerous and difficult country to try to help but she was not involved in proselytisation."

He said Serve had a strict non-proselytising policy. Some Taliban claims of responsibility for killings in Afghanistan have turned out to be inaccurate in recent years.

Lyth paid tribute to Williams as "the life and soul of the party". He added: "She did find it difficult [in Afghanistan] because women find it difficult there anyway but she loved what she did and she had a love for the Afghan people."

Serve employs 200 Afghan staff but will now take a "long, hard look" at its operations, he added. "Each time something like this happens, you wonder - do you go on exposing people to unnecessary risk? Yet at the same time you have got the cry of many, many of the Afghans saying: 'Please help us'. You're caught between a rock and a hard place."

Louise Gearing, a friend who met Williams when the charity worker led a weekly discussion group for Christian worshipers, said: "She was an amazing lady. She was loving, she was caring, and she was willing to want to make a change for the better."

Williams was brought up in South Africa, where her sister is still based, but lived in Britain for some time before going to Afghanistan. She had dual nationality and had been an active member of the evangelical Hillsong church in London, where her mother lives.

Other aid agencies expressed concerns. "We are worried about the deteriorating security situation," said Sarah Wilson of Christian Aid. "We are known for not proselytising and we don't have a sign on our door. We have pulled international staff out of Iraq but we will continue to work in Afghanistan although we take the security situation very seriously."

The international development secretary, Douglas Alexander, said: "It was with great sadness that I heard about the death of Gayle Williams ... To suggest her killing was a religious act is as despicable as it is absurd."