Aid group plays down Taliban link to doctors deaths By Channel 4 News
Updated on 09 August 2010
A Christian aid group has cast doubt on Taliban claims it had shot dead ten members of a medical team in northeastern Afghanistan and insisted he did not try to convert Muslims to Christianity.
The 10 team members — six Americans, two Afghans, one Briton and a German — were shot on Thursday by gunmen after finishing a two-week mission providing medical care to impoverished villagers in remote Nuristan province.
Among those to die was British surgeon Dr Karen Woo.
Americans Tom Little; Dan Terry; Cheryl Beckett; Brian Carderelli; Dr Tom Grams, and Glen Lapp also died along with German Daniela Beyer.
Two Afghans were killed; Mahram Ali, an Afghan driver, and Jawed, who had only one name.
They had been part of a 12-person group from the International Assistance Mission (IAM) which had been working an eye clinic at the remote province at Badakshan.
The Taliban claimed responsibility and said the group had been trying to convert people to Christianity. Another Islamist group also said it had carried out the killings.
But Dirk Frans, IAM executive director told a news conference in Kabul that local police suggested bandits had committed the murders. The group's valuables had also been stolen.
Mr Frans also rejected claims by insurgents that the group had Bibles in Dari or were otherwise engaged in proselytizing.
He said that while some team members may have been carrying bibles in their own language of either English or german - there were none in the local language.
Mr Frans said that five out of the eight families have requested that the bodies of the dead be buried in Kabul's Christian cemetery - however the FBI has requested they be flown to the United states where autopsies can be carried out.
Poster Comment:
so they were not even trying to convert people. yet they are accused of doing this. and 2 groups claim credit for killing them. the police say the killings may have been done by bandits. but in our national media the taliban killed them because they were preaching christianity.