UN Chief condemns terrorist attack in Pakistan
UN: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon strongly condemned on Tuesday
the terrorist attack on a luxury hotel in Pakistan, in which a UN staff
member was among the dead.
In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Ban said he was saddened
by the large numbers of dead and wounded, which included Aleksandar
Vorkapic, a staff member of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Vorkapic was part of an emergency team recently deployed to Pakistan
to help with the current displacement crisis, Ban said. “ Once again, a
dedicated staff member of the United Nations is among the victims of a
heinous terrorist attack which no cause can justify.”
The secretary-general extended his condolences to the families of the
victims and to the government and people of Pakistan, and wished those
injured a full recovery.
Earlier on Tuesday, a suicide truck bomb ripped through the five-star
hotel Pearl Continental killing 11 people and wounding 52 in Peshawar,
capital of a northwest Pakistani province plagued by Taliban violence,
reports said.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack but it has the
markings of a Taliban attack on the luxury Marriott Hotel in Islamabad
in September 2008 that killed 60 people.
UNITED NATIONS, Wednesday, Xinhua
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