Slain female aid workers belonged to poor families in Bannu

BANNU: The four women, including two sisters, who were gunned down in North Waziristan on Monday worked for a non-governmental organisation to impart vocational training to needy women.

The slain women belonged to poor families in Bannu district and were getting Rs1,000 only per day.

They were hired by the Bravo College of Technology, Peshawar, which had made an arrangement with an NGO, Sabawoon, to impart sewing and embroidery skills to local women in North Waziristan.

“The women worked for 16 days a month for the three-month project “Women Empowerment.” It was going to be completed on February 24 when the gory incident took place,” said a relative of the slain workers.

According to the police, five women travelling in a car were going to Mir Ali tehsil in North Waziristan from Bannu. The women were identified as Naheed Bibi, Irshad Bibi, Ayesha Bibi, Javeria Bibi and Maryam Bibi.

The driver, Abdul Khaliq, was taking them to Mir Ali. It was leant that Maryam Bibi disembarked from the car and went inside the vocational centre where she worked and in the meantime unidentified gunmen opened indiscriminate fire on the vehicle.

The four women sitting in the car were killed while the driver was injured in the attack. The bodies and the injured driver were taken to a hospital in Mir Ali town.

The bodies were later brought to the District Headquarters Hospital and Khalifa Gul Nawaz Hospital in Bannu.

The women used to travel from Bannu to Mir Ali to their respective vocational centres.

Two of the four slain women, Irshad Bibi and Ayesha Bibi, were sisters. One was married while the other was unmarried. Of the remaining two who were assassinated, Naheed Bibi was married while Javeria was unmarried.

The married women had one daughter each while their husbands were jobless.

The acts of subversion and targetted killings have been taking place in North Waziristan and South Waziristan since 2018. North Waziristan was declared cleared of militants in 2018 as a result of the militancy operation, Zarb-e-Azb, launched there in June 2014.

After clearing the area, the government had sent back the displaced families to their native areas. However, there are still some places that have not been cleared and the people hailing from those areas are displaced. Many of them live in Bannu which is the adjoining district to North Waziristan.