British aid worker Khalil Dale beheaded by Taliban in Pakistan It is understood that his captors demanded $30 million (£18.4 million) from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Hamid Shakeel, the Quetta police chief said the method by which he was killed indicated the involvement of the Pakistan Taliban. For anyone else it's bullets. For them it's a knife cutting the neck the way you would kill an animal. This is how they send a message that they were responsible," he said. Mr Shakeel added that Mr Dale's body was tied by the ankles but showed no signs of torture or injury other than a diabetic ulcer on one leg. Mr Dale, who grew up in Dumfries and later lived in Manchester, converted to Islam at least 20 years ago. His brother, Ian, who is also a nurse, lives in New Zealand. Both his parents are dead. His step-niece, Justine Barber, said: "Everyone is very, very distressed at the moment. We just want a period of quiet. Yves Daccord, Director-General of the ICRC, condemned the killing as "barbaric." "We are devastated," he said. Khalil was a trusted and very experienced Red Cross staff member who significantly contributed to the humanitarian cause. Mr Dale worked at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine before beginning his foreign travels around 15 years ago. He had worked for the Red Cross in some of the world's most dangerous places, including Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq, and during his assignments, he had been imprisoned and tortured, robbed at gunpoint, strafed by machine-gun fire and threatened by a man wielding a Kalashnikov rifle. He spoke Arabic fluently and adopted the name Khalil, dropping his given name Ken, after converting to Islam. He had returned to Britain last year to nurse his dying mother in Dumfries. It has been suggested he was engaged to an Australian woman named Anne, who he had met while working abroad. On one of his visits home, he spoke of the dangers he face and said "I just get on with the job and I believe in destiny. But I'll put it this way: I've made my will. Roy Hayes, a family friend who has known Mr Dale for 20 years, said: "He was as gentle as anything, one of the most caring and thoughtful people I have ever met. He found other cultures fascinating and was offended by misery and desperate circumstances but in a caring rather than a campaigning way. He wasn't naive about the dangers he was facing, he just wanted to help people He was slightly built, almost frail looking, but nothing fazed him and he had put himself in danger so many times. Khalil had an endless supply of understanding and had tended to people in some of the most desperate situations - that's what makes this so ghastly. We had hoped that his natural empathy with others would help him find a common link with his captors and they would release him. Retired nurse Sheila Howat, a former colleague at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary, fought back tears as she said: "It's dreadful what has happened to him, really awful. The world has lost someone who really cared for others . She said that after Mr Dale was captured, she had contacted the Foreign Office and Dumfries and Galloway MP Russell Brown to see if anything could be done to free him. "But I was told that everything had to be done quietly and that they did not want a campaign," she said. In Pakistan, he had been working as a health programme manager in Quetta for almost a year. The city is reputedly home to Afghan Taliban leaders - the so-called Quetta Shura - and is frequently targeted for attacks by Baluch separatist groups. Those risks put it off limits for many foreign aid groups, except for those such as the ICRC with a reputation for neutrality. Mr Dale was abducted by masked men carrying AK-47 rifles while returning home from work on January 5. About eight gunmen stopped his vehicle as it slowed to pass a checkpoint before forcing him into another car. The ICRC set up a negotiating team and were twice sent evidence that Mr Dale was still alive.