ISLAMABAD: Militants targeted a UN office involved in the distribution of food to internally displaced people from Pakistan’s northwest on Monday when a man blew himself up, killing at least five people.
The blast shattered windows in the lobby of the compound housing offices of the World Food Program (WFP) in an upscale residential area of Islamabad. The office is close to a home belonging to President Asif Ali Zardari.
Hours after the attack, the world body said it was closing its offices in Pakistan temporarily. “This is a heinous crime committed against those who have been working tirelessly to assist the poor and vulnerable on the front lines of hunger and other human suffering in Pakistan,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in Geneva.
Ban said the UN will continue its humanitarian assistance to more than two million Pakistanis. WFP spokesman Amjad Jamal said the food agency would not halt its aid to refugees fleeing fighting between militants and the army even while its offices were shut. “I want to repeat it again that our operations have not been halted.”
Deputy Inspector General of Police Binyamin Khan said among the dead were security guard Botan Ali, two women WFP workers — Gul Mukhtar and Farzana Barkat — and an Iraqi national. Police detained five suspects.
Security camera footage broadcast on local TV showed the bomber walking through a door into what appears to be the main building carrying a two-foot-long cylindrical object — possibly a detonator — in one hand. Seconds later, a bright flash filled the screen.
Binyamin said up to eight kilograms of explosives were used in the blast. He said explosion also injured five people who were taken to nearby Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for treatment.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the attacker was wearing the uniform of a paramilitary police officer and asked a guard if he could go inside the building to use the bathroom.
