Soft targets

Pakistan | The U.S. war on terror must continue, but terrorist retaliation—such as the execution of 7 human-rights workers—is aimed at Christians in Muslim lands. Does the U.S. have an obligation to help protect them? | Mindy Belz

Security guard Robin Peera Datta briefly left his post outside the Institute for Peace and Justice in central Karachi to buy milk for the staff's midmorning tea. While he was away two gunmen entered the agency's offices armed with the latest Russian-made semiautomatic pistols. They tied six workers to chairs, taped their mouths, and shot each one in the head. A seventh worker was shot and wounded as he tried to flee but died later in the hospital. As the attackers began to flee, Mr. Peera Datta returned; they beat him but not to death.

Local investigators initially concluded that the killings were "a well-planned act of terrorism." If so it is the fifth deadly assault by Islamic militants on Christians—two church attacks, a Christian school, and a mission hospital—all since Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf gave his public support to the U.S. war on terror. Those attacks have killed 39 and injured 75.