ASIA/PAKISTAN - The effort to save aid workers held hostage by the Taliban, who "fear the work of NGOs"

Islamabad (Agenzia Fides) - The government of Pakistan "strongly condemns the kidnapping of the two European aid workers of the NGO 'Welthungerhilfe' who are in the hands of the Taliban. The country is engaged in the fight against terrorism and will do their best for their release and their salvation. As the Ministry of Harmony, we will report back the case to the Ministry of Interior, demanding maximum effort": this is what the Catholic Akram Gill, Minister of the Federal State for Harmony and religious minorities says to Fides. The two Western aid workers kidnapped in Multan in January are the Italian Giovanni Lo Porto and the German Bernd Johannes. Currently they are prisoners of the terrorist organization "Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan" (TTP). According to information filtered by the group, the two are well and, according to observers, a ransom could be on the way.
In an interview with Fides Mehdi Hasan, a board member of the NGO "Human Rights Commission of Pakistan" (HRCP) explains: "The Taliban kidnap aid workers mainly because they fear the work of awareness that NGOs perform in the country. They feel threatened by social work but above all cultural: their ability to affect the mentality of the people, on the esteem that can be generated towards civil society, towards an idea of rights that NGOs promote, this can affect their extremist ideology . As NGOs we are careful to monitor the situation. We continue to urge the government to increase the standard of human rights and the protection of humanitarian workers". Last December Zarteef Afridi, a coordinator of HRCP in the province of Khyber was killed for his efforts in the field of human rights. "With kidnappings, murders and intimidation, foreign NGOs leave the country and this is what the Taliban want", concludes Hasan.
Among the recent kidnappings recorded carried out by Taliban groups in January last year are included even those of an aid worker in Kenya in Sindh and an English from the Red Cross in Quetta. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 14/2/2012)