Islamabad, January 01: The UN said Thursday it was planning to temporarily relocate some of its international staff out of Pakistan to “safer places” due to security reasons.
Ishrat Rizvi, the UN information officer here, said “some percentage” of the organization’s foreign workers will be relocated to other countries in accordance with the “re-alignment of some of our projects in Pakistan”.
“However this does not mean that we are pulling out our staff from Pakistan,” she explained. “It’s just a temporary arrangement and our staff will continue to support the projects from safe places.”
Rizvi said the organisation will re-evaluate the security situation in Pakistan after six months.
Pakistan has seen an intensified campaign of militant attacks since October when its forces launched a major assault against Taliban fighters in South Waziristan, a lawless tribal district that borders Afghanistan.
A suicide bombing in early October at the UN World Food Programme left five workers dead and injured many others.
–IANS–