Unidentified gunmen kill four female aid workers in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province

Unidentified gunmen killed four women aid workers in their vehicle in northwest Pakistan yesterday, police said, underlining a rise in militant violence in the region. The women worked for an NGO that trained other women, said Shafiullah Gandapur, the police chief in North Waziristan, part of the northwest province of KhyberPakhtunkhwa.

“The women have been targeted and killed by the terrorists,” he said. “It is too early to say who or what group could be involved.” Gandapur said one passenger survived. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but women have long been a target of religious militants who oppose their education or going out to work.

The Pakistani Taliban shot and critically injured teenager Malala Yousafzai in 2012 for advocating girls’ education in a northern district that was under the religious militants’ control.

In 2014, Malala became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

She became a global symbol of the resilience of women in the face of oppression.

Yesterday’s shooting came amid a rise in militant violence in the region that once served as headquarters of local and Afghan Taliban groups besides foreign Al Qaedalinked militants.

The area is going through a transitional phase from military campaigns to a transfer to civilian authorities, army spokesman Major-General Babar Iftikhar said. “Border regions have their own dynamics, and we should understand them,” he told reporters. “These are tribal districts, and they have their own culture, it will take time to be absorbed (into settled areas) to be normalised. What we need to do is to stay the course.”