BBC News – Pakistani city of Quetta in shock after double attack

Sunday 16 June 1984. A day of official mourning has been declared in the Pakistani city of Quetta after 25 people were killed by gunmen in twin attacks on Saturday.

After a bomb on a bus killed 14 female students and injured 22, militants attacked a hospital treating survivors, where they killed another 11 people.

Four attackers were also killed and one arrested, officials say.

No clear motive for the attack has yet been established but a Sunni Muslim militant group is being blamed.

A man purporting to be a spokesman for Lashkar-e-Jhangvi told the BBC the attacks were revenge for an earlier raid by security forces against the group, in which a woman and children were killed.

Quetta, a city of 900,000 people in the south-west of the country, has long been troubled by violence mainly targeting the Shia Muslim minority.

The city is reeling from a deep sense of shock, trying to make sense of Saturday’s events, the BBC’s Shahzeb Jillani reports.

‘Unjustifiable’

Funerals are being planned for the victims of the attack while an official day of mourning is being observed across the province of Balochistan, of which Quetta is capital.

Saturday’s bloodshed began when a bomb exploded on a bus carrying students at Sardar Bahadur Khan Women’s University.

When survivors were brought to a medical centre, suspected suicide bombers stormed the building and started shooting indiscriminately.

A five-hour stand-off between the militants and security forces left nurses, security personnel and a senior city official dead.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attacks in a statement, saying no cause could justify such violence.

“The secretary general notes with dismay that violence against women and educators has increased in recent years, the aim being to keep girls from attaining the basic right to education,” his spokesperson said.

Groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi have carried out major bombings against Shia religious minorities, our correspondent says.

The group is known for close ties with the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22925058

Dawn – Multiple blasts, gunfire kill 23 in Quetta; hospital under siege; 14 female students killed in bus-bombing; DC Quetta, four security personnel, four terrorists killed in operation at hospital.

Syed Ali Shah

Quetta/Islamabad, 15 June 2013. At least 23 people, including 14 female students and the deputy commissioner Quetta, were killed Saturday in multiple bomb and gun attacks by militants in the capital of insurgency-hit Balochistan province.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told reporters at a press conference that several parts of the Bolan Medical Complex, taken under siege by terrorists, have now been cleared by security forces.

An operation was being carried out by security personnel to free the Bolan Medical Complex from heavily armed militants who had taken over parts of the hospital and were reported to have taken several people hostage.

A large number of patients and doctors were trapped inside the complex when heavily armed militants took the hospital under siege.

According to security forces, parts of the hospital have been cleared while four gunmen are still believed to be inside the complex.

Nisar confirmed that 35 hostages had now been freed by security forces.

“According to our official reports, four terrorists have been killed in the operation while one suspect has been arrested from outside the hospital,” said the interior minister.

The interior minister said further details of the ongoing operation to clear the hospital would be announced later.

Condemning the earlier attack on Ziarat Residency, he said that orders have been issued to re-build the historic monument of the country. Chaudhry Nisar also revealed that outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility of the rocket attacks in Ziarat.

Nisar said the total death toll from the attacks in Quetta has now risen to 22, including four terrorists, four Frontier Corps personnel, Deputy Commissioner Quetta Abdul Mansoor Khan and 14 female students of the Sardar Bahadar Khan Women’s University.

The female students were killed earlier when an improvised explosive device ripped through a bus inside the university campus.

“The bomb exploded just when female teachers and students gathered inside the bus around 3 pm to proceed for Quetta city from the university,” CCPO Mir Zubair Mehmood said.

The CCPO said that most of the victims were female teachers and students. He said the bus caught fire after the powerful blast.

The injured were shifted to the Bolan Medical Complex, where half an hour later sounds of explosions and gunfire spread panic and chaos among the patients and doctors.

Several people were trapped inside the complex for hours as security personnel engaged in a grueling operation against the militants.

Security forces have now cleared most of the complex and evacuated the civilians, although CCPO Mir Zubair Mehmood said it might take another three hours to confirm that the hospital was clear of all terrorists.

Meanwhile, the Balochistan government has officially announced to observe a “day of mourning” on Sunday.

Earlier Saturday, militants attacked the Quaid-e-Azam residency in Ziarat with hand grenades, destroying the historical monument where the founder of Pakistan Mohammad Ali Jinnah spent his last days.

A policeman was killed in the attack on the Jinnah’s monumental residency.

Officials had confirmed that most of the old memorials inside the monument were destroyed, with historic photographs of the founder burnt to the ground in the resulting fire.

It was unclear if the attack on the Quaid’s residency in Ziarat was related to the later attacks in Quetta.

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervez Rashid assured full support to the Balochistan Government in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Balochistan.

Speaking to media representatives in Islamabad, Rashid strongly condemned the attacks. He said that those involved in these terrorist acts were the enemies of Pakistan and Balochistan.

He said that the entire nation was with the people of Balochistan at this critical juncture.

No militant group has so far claimed responsibility for any of the attacks.

http://beta.dawn.com/news/1018428/blast-in-quetta-several-injured

Dawn – Hazaras warn of communities’ segregation

Islamabad, Rabi-us-Sani 16, 1434; 27 February 2013. Leaders of the Shia Hazara community said in the Supreme Court on Tuesday that any knee-jerk reaction by the authorities in Balochistan could cause segregation of communities which might further fan sectarian violence in the country.

“We are not interested in taking revenge but want that culprits involved in the gruesome Hazara Town bombing be sternly dealt with in accordance with the law,” former senator Abbas Kumaili told a three-judge bench which rejected as unsatisfactory a report submitted by the Balochistan government on measures taken to ensure peace in Quetta.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had taken suo motu notice of unabated killings of the Shia Hazara community.

“We are not interested in any compensation; we want peace,” said Agha Nasir Ali Shah, a PPP MNA.

Abbas Kumaili regretted that the 16 February Hazara Town bombing was not an isolated incident; the killing of Shia leaders had begun in 1993, but the successive governments had failed to take any action despite repeated appeals and warnings.

He said he feared that such incidents might spread to other cities and towns if the root cause was not identified and real culprits were not arrested. Only a Swat-like operation in Balochistan could ensure restoration of peace in Quetta.

“We are not asking for handing over Quetta to the army,” Mr Kumaili said, adding that in curbing terrorist activities the prolonged silence of and negligence on the part of law-enforcement and intelligence agencies were meaningful.

He submitted a list of incidents that have taken place since 1993 in which a large number of people belonging to the Shia community were ruthlessly killed. Even pilgrims going to Iran were butchered and their buses burnt on return, especially in Mastung area.

http://dawn.com/2013/02/27/hazaras-warn-of-communities-segregation/

The Hindu – Hazara Shias protest with their dead against sectarian violence

Anita Joshua

Islamabad, 17 February 2013.  The death toll in Saturday’s bomb blast near Hazara Town in Quetta climbed to 84 and triggered another wave of protest across the country against sectarian violence and the inability of the powers that be to round up the terrorists unleashing such carnage with regular impunity.

Most of the dead were Hazara Shias; a community that has been repeatedly targeted over the past couple of years.

The dead included many women and children; some of whom were charred beyond recognition because of the fire that followed the massive explosion heard all over Quetta.

The banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility for the attack and said the target was the Shia community of Hazara Town. Along with their dead, members of the Hazara Shia community picketed a thoroughfare of Quetta on Sunday demanding action against LeJ and refusing to bury those killed until those responsible were rounded up.

A similar protest in January – following serial blasts in Quetta targeting the Hazara Shias – saw the federal government dismiss the provincial government and declare Governor’s Rule in Balochistan. Since Governor’s Rule and more powers to the security forces in the province has had little impact on sectarian violence, the Hazara Shias this time round have become more vocal in demanding action against LeJ despite the inherent risks in naming the organisation that wants Shias to be declared infidels in Pakistan.

Even as protests spread to different parts of the country – including Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi – mass graves were dug up in Quetta for the burial of those killed in the blast. Emotionally drained by the unrelenting attack on their community, the Hazara Shias lamented that they now had no burial space for their dead; such is the rate at which they are being killed.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/south-asia/hazara-shias-protest-with-their-dead-against-sectarian-violence/article4425210.ece

Dawn – Quetta blast death toll reaches 79

Quetta, 17 February 2013. A suicide-bomb targeting Shia Hazaras in a busy market in Pakistan’s restive southwest killed 79 people including women and children and wounded 180 others, officials said Sunday.

The powerful bomb in a water tanker ripped through a packed bazaar near Hazara town, an area dominated by Shias on the outskirts of Quetta, capital of oil and gas rich Balochistan province, at around 6:00 pm (local time) on Saturday.

“We have recovered more dead bodies from the debris of a collapsed building. The death toll has now risen to 79,” senior Quetta police official Wazir Khan Nasir told AFP,

Quetta city police chief Zubair Mehmood said the water tanker, which officials said was packed with some 800 kilograms  of explosives, was placed near a pillar of a two-storey building, which collapsed in the blast.

“We fear that several people have been trapped inside. Rescue work is ongoing but I see very little chance of their survival,” Mehmood said.

Nasir said the bombing “was a sectarian attack, the Shia community was the target”.

A spokesman for the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Provincial home secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani said the dead and injured included women and children, and confirmed reports of people trapped under rubble at the site of the collapsed building.

“We fear more casualties. We have announced an emergency in hospitals,” he told AFP.

Officials and witnesses said an angry mob initially surrounded the area following the bombing and were not allowing police, rescue workers and reporters to reach the site.

“They were angry and started a protest, some of them pelted police with stones,” Durrani said, adding that authorities and medical personnel were eventually able to gain access.

Governor Balochistan Nawab Zulifqar Ali Magsi announced a day of mourning for today over the incident.

President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain also condemned the incident.

The Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) and the MQM also announced for a day of mourning to be observed on Sunday.

Sayed Qamar Haider Zaidi, Tehreek Nafaz-i-Fiqh-i-Jafriya (TNFJ) central information secretary, condemned the Pakistani government for not providing protection to the community and announced three days of mourning and protest over the attack.

Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has increasingly become a flashpoint for sectarian violence between Pakistan’s majority Sunni Muslims and Shias, who account for around a fifth of the country’s 180 million people.

At least 93 people were killed and 121 wounded on January 10 when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a crowded snooker club in an area of Quetta city dominated by the Shia community.

It was Pakistan’s worst sectarian bombing, also claimed by (LeJ), and came after what Human Rights Watch (HRW) said was the deadliest year on record for the country’s Shias, with more than 400 people killed in 2012, mostly in drive-by shootings.

Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf late last month sacked the provincial government in Balochistan after meeting Shia Muslim protesters demanding protection.

The province is also rife with militants and hit by a regional insurgency which began in 2004, with fighters demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region’s natural resources.

http://dawn.com/2013/02/17/quetta-blast-death-toll-reaches-79/

BBC News – Pakistan blasts: Shia refuse to bury Quetta bomb dead

Saturday, 11 January 2013. Pakistan’s minority Shia community has protested angrily over what it says is a lack of protection in the city of Quetta, a day after almost 100 people died there in a series of blasts.

Leaders of the community have refused to bury the dead until security is improved.

One Shia leader publicly criticised army chief General Ashfaq Kayani.

Sunni militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi said it carried out the deadliest attack in Quetta on Thursday.

Three days of mourning have been announced in Balochistan province after the blasts in its capital, on one of the deadliest days of bombings in Pakistan in recent years.

At least 119 people were killed in Quetta and in a separate attack in Mingora in the north-west.

‘Hell on Earth’

The worst attack targeted a snooker hall late on Thursday evening in Alamdar Road in Quetta. One suicide bomber detonated his device and a car bomb was detonated minutes later as police, rescuers and media arrived.

Most of the dead were from Quetta’s 500,000-strong Hazara Shia.

Members of the community on Friday laid coffins in the street, refusing to bury them.

The president of the Shia Conference, Syed Dawood Agha, told the BBC that his community would not bury its dead till the army had given an assurance it would take administrative control of the city.

A relative of one of the victims, Fida Hussain, said: “We want safety for our all sects, and all security measures should be taken for our safety. We will not bury them until the government fulfils all our demands.”

One resident, Jan Ali, told Associated Press that Thursday’s blast at the snooker hall was “a scene like hell on Earth”.

“Rescue people were carrying out dead and injured, people bleeding and crying, and rushing them toward ambulances.

I have never seen such a horrifying situation in my life.”

Among the dead was Quetta-based rights activist, Irfan Ali, who was reportedly helping those wounded in the first blast.

Another resident, Abbas Ali, told AP news agency: “This government has totally failed in protecting us. Somehow we will get compensation for our losses but those who have gone away will not come back.”

Key Shia leader Maulana Amin Shaheedi criticised what he said was the inaction of General Kayani.

He said: “I ask the army chief: ‘What have you done with these extra three years you got [in office]? What did you give us except more death?’”

Shia protesters also turned out in the port city of Karachi to demonstrate their anger at the killings.

‘Separatist attack’

At least 85 people were killed at the snooker hall, with more than 100 injured.

The BBC’s M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has in the past targeted the area’s Hazara Shia.

Earlier, a bomb in a market area killed 12 people and injured dozens more.

Paramilitary personnel of the Frontier Corps appeared to be the target.

A spokesman for militant group, the United Baloch Army, said it had carried out that bombing.

Balochistan is plagued by a separatist rebellion as well as the sectarian infighting.

The Taliban and armed groups that support them also carry out attacks in the province, particularly in areas near the Afghan border.

Also on Thursday, at least 22 people were killed and more than 80 injured in an explosion near Mingora in Pakistan’s north-western Swat valley.

The blast took place at a religious gathering.

Police initially said the explosion was caused by a gas canister, but a senior official later said it was a bomb.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20989329

Dawn – At least 93 lives lost in Quetta explosions

Quetta, 11 January 2013. As many as 81 people were killed and 121 injured in suicide and car bomb blasts in Quetta’s Alamdar Road area on Thursday night.

Earlier in the afternoon, 12 people lost their lives when a bomb went off near a vehicle of the Frontier Corps at Bacha Khan Chowk.

A cameraman and a reporter of a private news channel, a computer operator of a news agency and nine police personnel, including two senior police officers, were among the dead, while 10 army and FC personnel were injured in the blasts.

A majority of the people killed in the Alamdar Road blasts belonged to the Hazara Shia community.

The banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi has claimed responsibility for the blasts.

“Eighty-one people have been killed and 120 injured, including 10 army and FC personnel, in two blasts,” Hamid Shakeel, Deputy Inspector General of Police, told Dawn.

The death toll might go up because the condition of several injured people was serious, he added.

Police sources said that the first blast took place in a snooker club on Alamdar Road when people were busy playing the game. Several people were killed or injured in the blast. “A man entered the snooker club and a powerful blast took place,” they said, adding that it appeared to be a suicide attack.

Police, workers of Edhi Trust and media teams rushed to the place soon after the first blast and started taking the injured to hospital.

A second blast took place 10 minutes after the first blast outside the snooker club when a large number of people, police and rescue workers gathered there. A majority of people were killed and injured in the second blast.

Five police personnel, including a senior police officer, and three media men also lost their lives in the second blast.

Reporter Saifullah Baloch and cameraman Imran Shaikh belonged to Samaa TV, while computer operator Mohammad Iqbal worked for NNI.

Some other media men, who reached the site to cover the first blast, were also injured in the second explosion.

Imran Shaikh was the third Samaa cameraman to have lost his life in the line of duty. Earlier, Ejaz Ahmed Raisani and Malik Arif had been killed in bomb blasts.

Police said that an explosive-laden car parked at the roadside was used in the second explosion. Both the blasts shook the entire provincial capital.

“The building which housed the snooker club was destroyed completely, while over 50 shops and nearby houses were badly damaged,” eyewitness Khalil Ahmed said.

Two rescue workers were also killed in the blast, he added.

Soon after the second blast, power supply was disrupted in the area as wires snapped. “Bodies littered a large area,” another eyewitness Banaras Khan told Dawn, adding that several media men were missing. A DSNG of Geo TV was damaged in the second explosion. A cameraman received injuries while other staffers remained unhurt.

Rescue workers and security personnel faced difficulty in collecting bodies and in shifting the injured to hospital.

An emergency was declared at Civil Hospital and the Combined Military Hospital. Most of the injured and bodies were brought to CMH. The condition of at least 10 of the injured was stated to be critical.

“The death toll might increase,” hospital officials expressed fears.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Lashkar-i-Jhangvi told media from an unknown place that his organisation had carried out the two explosions.

Capital City Police Officer Zubair Mehmood confirmed at a press conference the killing of 81 people and injuring of 121 in the two blasts.

“A doomsday scenario was at the blast site. Bodies were lying everywhere.”

Mr Mehmood said that nine police officials had lost their lives.

Earlier in the afternoon, at least 12 people, including an FC soldier and a child, were killed and over 60 injured in a bomb blast before the night-time carnage shook the city.

The bomb was planted close to a parked vehicle of Frontier Corps at the crowded Bacha Khan Chowk. The blast rocked the entire city Several other FC men were injured in the blast, Balochistan Home Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani told Dawn, adding that the condition of at least five people was serious.

Among the injured were two women and three children.

Frontier Corps officials confirmed that one soldier had been killed and 10 others injured in the blast. “We have lost one soldier in the blast and another is in critical condition,” a spokesman said.

An Afghan national, who hailed from Spin-Boldak, a border district of Afghanistan, was also killed in the blast.

The banned United Baloch Army has claimed responsibility for the blast. Its spokesman Mureed Baloch told newsmen that the blast was in revenge for Mashkay, Awaran and Bolan operations launched by FC.

The area where the blast took place is a populated and busy commercial junction where thousands of people come for shopping and doing business in Baldia Plaza.

“Thousands of people were busy shopping and in doing business in Baldia Plaza and in the Bacha Khan Chowk when the blast took place,” said eyewitness Mehmood Khan, who owns a shop in the area.

Police sources said that the bomb planted with a time device in a bag close to the FC vehicle went off at 3.10 pm, killing at least 10 people on the spot and injuring over 60.

Police and FC personnel cordoned off the place and took the bodies and the injured to Civil Hospital, where an emergency had been declared.

Two injured, including the FC soldier, died in hospital as they had received multiple wounds.

“The target of the bomb blast was the vehicle carrying FC men and a checkpost in the area,” said Capital City Police Officer Zubair Mehmood.

He told reporters that it was a time device. “We have collected evidence from the site and investigation is in progress,” he said.

Bomb disposal squad personnel said that 20 to 25 kg of explosives had been used in the blast.

Hospital sources said that 11 bodies and over 40 injured were brought to the Civil Hospital. Some of the injured had been shifted to CMH, Quetta. “We are trying to save lives of seriously injured people,” hospital officials said.

Most of the people killed in the blast were vendors and shopkeepers selling old clothes, rings, soup and other edible items outside Baldia Plaza.

Two Naib Tehsildars, who came from the Taunsa town of Rajanpur district in Punjab, were also killed.

Eight of the 12 dead were identified as Naib Tehsildars Ghulam Sarwar Qaisrani and Inayatullah, Mazuddin, Ziaul Haq, Fazal Ahmed, Sher Ali, Akhtar Mohammad and Tamour Shah.A man selling fruits on a pushcart had reportedly seen a white bag near the FC vehicle and informed the paramilitary force’s personnel before the bomb exploded. However, he remained safe, sources said.

The FC vehicle and about a dozen other cars and motorcycles were destroyed in the blast. About two dozen shops were damaged while windowpanes of several buildings and offices in Baldia plaza were smashed.

http://dawn.com/2013/01/11/at-least-93-lives-lost-in-quetta-explosions/

BBC News – Senior Pakistan policeman shot dead in Quetta

Tuesday 8 May 2012. A senior police officer in the restive south-western Pakistani province of Balochistan has been shot dead by unidentified gunmen, officials say.

Shahnawaz Khan was gunned down outside his home in the Satellite Town area of Balochistan’s capital, Quetta.

Balochistan is the centre of a nationalist insurgency and there is also an active Taliban presence in the region.

No group has said it carried out this attack.

Mr Khan was a senior figure in Balochistan’s Crimes Investigation Department and investigated cases of terror and sectarian violence, according to reports.

The killing is the latest in a number of targeted attacks on security forces in the region.

Last week a bomb attack targeted Pakistan’s Frontier Corps in Quetta, killing at least two people and in February 11 Pakistani soldiers died in an attack by separatist rebels elsewhere in the province.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17987213

BBC News – Khalil Dale: Red Cross tells of talks with kidnappers

Monday, 30 April 2012. The International Committee of the Red Cross has spoken of its attempts to free kidnapped UK aid worker Khalil Dale before he was murdered.

The 60-year-old was kidnapped in Quetta, Pakistan, in January. His body was found in the same town on Sunday.

ICRC spokesman Sean Maguire said it had been in touch with his abductors “a number of times”.

Pakistan expert Professor Shaun Gregory said such a killing was “actually quite rare” in that country.

Mr Maguire also said the death of Mr Dale, who was a Muslim convert, would weigh heavily on his colleagues.

“It’s a complex political reality on the ground in Pakistan. We’re certainly not identifying who we were in touch with.

“Often in these sorts of places people say they are something and it turns out that they’re not quite what they say they are.

“So we have to sift through the information we have and try to come to understand what has happened and take what lessons there are to be learnt.

“But his death will weigh heavily on colleagues working in Pakistan and colleagues working in headquarters who ultimately make the decisions about who goes where and who does what.”

ICRC director general Yves Daccord said: “All of us at the ICRC and at the British Red Cross share the grief and outrage of Khalil’s family and friends. We are devastated.”

Prime Minister David Cameron said the killing was “shocking and merciless”.

Mr Cameron said: “Khalil Dale has dedicated many years of his life to helping some of the most vulnerable people in the world and my thoughts today are with his friends and family.”

Some reports say the militants holding Mr Dale had asked for a very large ransom which could not be paid. His body was found in an orchard with a note saying he had been killed by the Taliban, local police said.

According to the BBC’s Aleem Maqbool, the Pakistani government has said it will stop at nothing to find the perpetrators and punish them.

‘Devastated’

Professor Gregory, who is director of the Pakistan Security Research Unit at Bradford University, said he was surprised at the news of Mr Dale’s death.

“It is worth remembering that this type of killing is actually quite rare in Pakistan. We do have to see this as the sending of a message to those who are obviously going to be kidnapped in the future and when the Taliban are seeking ransom.

“I think the message going out from the Taliban here is, when we kidnap people in the future we are serious about harming these people, and that’s a very difficult message to deal with.”

Mr Dale, originally called Ken, lived and worked in Dumfries, south-west Scotland, in the 1990s.

Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond said: “He had many friends around the world and regularly travelled back to Dumfries where he was well known and loved.”

He had worked for the ICRC and the British Red Cross for many years, carrying out assignments in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

British Red Cross chief executive Sir Nick Young said Khalil first worked overseas for the Red Cross in 1981 in Kenya, where he distributed food and helped improve the health of people affected by severe drought.

He also worked in Sudan before his posting to Pakistan.

Sir Nick added: “He was a gentle, kind person, who devoted his life to helping others, including some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

“Care workers like Khalil, and his colleagues in dangerous places all over the world, should be allowed to work free from threats of abduction and violence.”

Pierre Krähenbühl, Red Cross spokesman: “We’re deeply shocked and outraged”

Foreign Secretary William Hague said “tireless efforts” had been carried out in an attempt to secure Mr Dale’s release, and that the British government “has worked closely with the Red Cross throughout”.

Shiela Howat, who worked with Mr Dale when he was a staff nurse at Dumfries Infirmary in the 1990s, said he was “no stranger to danger”, and had previously been captured in Mogadishu.

Mrs Howat, who knew Mr Dale for 25 years, said his fiancee Anne, who is also a nurse, lives in Australia.

“He was an absolutely lovely person devoted to caring for others less fortunate than himself,” she told the BBC.

“He spent his time in war-torn countries where help was needed, where people were desperate and that was Ken’s role in life.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-17890740