In Brief: Call for relocation of UN offices in Pakistani capital

Photo: David Swanson/IRIN

WFP provides food to millions of impoverished people across Pakistan (file photo)

ISLAMABAD, 5 October 2009 (IRIN) - A bomb blast at the offices of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Islamabad which killed four people on 5 October, has led to a call for UN offices to be located in a more secure area.

Ishrat Rizvi, a UN spokesperson in Pakistan, told media in Islamabad all UN offices in the capital were being “temporarily closed due to security concerns,” adding that the UN was holding negotiations with the government on moving all UN offices in Islamabad to the heavily guarded diplomatic enclave in the city.

“We have already requested the UN to move its offices into the diplomatic enclave,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters.

Amjad Jamil, a spokesperson for WFP, which provides food to millions of impoverished people across the country, told IRIN: “We have closed our Islamabad offices but our other operations continue and should not be affected.”

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