Right after the attack, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the murders saying the medics had copies of the Bible in Dari, the local language, and that they wanted to convert Muslims. He also accused them of collecting information on Taliban positions.

These are baseless excuses, some experts said. IAM Director Dirk Frans explained that whilst his is a Christian NGO, it has never proselytised. He added that the group of slain medics was led by Dr Tom Little, who had been working in Afghanistan since the late seventies and spoke fluent Dari. Whilst he did not hide his faith, he did not try to convert Afghans.

Local sources told AsiaNews that the medics did not have any Bibles with them. They added, “No one, not even the Taliban, said they [the victims] handed out copies of the Bible, or that the medics had tried to convert anyone. No one has come up with them [the Bibles], nor have the Taliban exhibited any secret writings or papers. Everyone knows that IAM is a Christian organisation, but it has been in the country in 1966 and no one has ever accused them of proselytising or espionage”.

“In any event, if they were guilty they should have been detained and tried,” the anonymous source said. “This way, the Taliban could have presented the evidence [of the medics’ guilt] and achieved greater publicity.”

In reality, many analysts believe the Taliban have launched a campaign of escalating violence, with Westerners, any Westerner, as an enemy target, even if they are involved in humanitarian work.

“Outside of Kabul, there are few doctors, about one per 200,000”, another source said. “IAM volunteers are good eye doctors. Over the decades, they have treated millions of people. This is why the attack is particularly shocking and repugnant. Not only because it attacked people moved by Christian love for other people, but also because it is an act of violence against the Afghan population itself. The extremists do not care about the interests and the needs of the people they claim to be defending.”

John Dempsey, who works in Kabul for the US Institute of Peace, says Christian groups will “have to reassess what it means to be a Christian organisation in a country where they often are the ones singled out and targeted”.

Other analysts are wondering instead whether the increase in violence is concealing a weakening of the Taliban in the country. The region of Badakhshan, on the border of Tajikistan, site of the attack, is one of the few places in Afghanistan where the United States have successfully taken control away from the Taliban, and is considered relatively secure.

IAM has been active in the country since 1966. It has operated under the royalist, pro-Soviet and Taliban regimes. Now everyone in the organisation is under shock. Nevertheless, in a statement, the NGO said it hoped the attack would not halt its work that benefits more than 250,000 Afghan patients annually.