PESHAWAR, April 7: Members of the Christian community held a protest demonstration here on Thursday against assassination of two personnel belonging to a local NGO in Tehkal area. Police fired teargas shells to disperse the protesters. A police official claimed to have arrested a girl and a man on the charge of killing the two NGO personnel.

Sources said that Mr Baber Simpson, head of the recently established NGO, Ilam Dost Foundation, and his driver Danial, had been kidnapped on Tuesday night from the University Town area and their bodies were found in a nullah in Mulazai village in Nasirbagh locality on Thursday. They lived in the Father Colony in Tehkal Payan area.

Mr Simpson had established the foundation last month with its office in Bilour Plaza in the Cantonment area. He also worked for the Shelter Now International, whose 24 foreign and Afghan workers were arrested by the ousted Taliban regime in July 2001 in Afghanistan.

The Taliban authorities had accused the four German, two Australian, two American and 16 Afghan workers of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

The police official said that Mr Simpson’s brother Adil Sulaiman had registered a complaint with the University Town police about the kidnapping of the deceased. He had not named any suspected in the case.

However, the official said they had arrested Samina, daughter of Shan Khan of Attock district, and Saeed Ahmad, son of Abdullah of Swat.

Sources close to the family of the deceased said that Mr Simpson had been receiving threats from some unknown people who were demanding Rs1.5 million from him.