Member News
30th April 2012The British Red Cross has paid tribute to murdered aid worker Khalil Dale, calling him "a remarkable man".
Mr Dale was kidnapped in Quetta, Pakistan, in January and body was found in the same town on Sunday. In a note left beside his body the Taliban claimed they killed the 60-year-old Briton.
Sir Nicholas Young, chief executive of the British Red Cross, said:
"Khalil Dale has been a committed member of the Red Cross Red Crescent family for the last 30 years. He was a gentle, kind person, who devoted his life to helping others, including some of the world’s most vulnerable people.
"We condemn his abduction and murder in the strongest possible terms. It not only robs him of his life, and his family and co-workers of their loved one and friend – it robs the people he was helping of the expert care they need. 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."
The BRS said Mr Dale first worked overseas for the Red Cross in 1981 in Kenya, distributing food and improving the health of people affected by severe drought.
He also worked in Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq, before his posting to Pakistan with the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "deeply saddened" by Mr Dale’s "brutal murder".
"This was a shocking and merciless act, carried out by people with no respect for human life and the rule of law," he said.