UN fortifies its offices in Pak in view of terror threats

Islamabad, Aug 27 : As a precautionary measure, the UN has fortified all its offices in Pakistan following security concerns and general terror threats, especially in the wake of high degree of insecurity prevailing in the country and fresh new spate of suicide attacks.

The offices of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Sector F-8/3 now resemble a fort with an entire security wall, as tall as the building itself having been erected. The newly created wall was filled with tons of sand in order to thwart the impact of a bomb blast, sources told the Daily Times.

The decision was taken following the recommendations of a WFP Security Mission that visited Islamabad in July days after a suicide attack outside the Danish Embassy wrecked an adjacent UN Project Office.

The UN House in F-7/2 and the UN International Children's Fund (UNICEF) have also come up with similar security steps, although there have been no direct threats as such. The buildings, which are in fact private houses, had previously stood quite exposed.

Insiders said that such measures had become necessary because of a spate of recent suicide attacks. "Even if we are not the target, we just might suffer because of the impact of a blast nearby," the paper quoted an official as saying.

However, while the agencies have done their bit to fortify themselves, it has perhaps not occurred to them what danger their continued presence in residential neighbourhood posed to the residents. "Yes indeed we feel unsafe because of such offices in our vicinity and all the security steps that they continue to adopt goes to show that these organizations have no plans of moving out anytime soon," the paper quoted one Muhammad Ali as saying, who lives near one of the UN offices.

ANI