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UN suspends development work in northwest Pakistan

By SEBASTIAN ABBOT (AP) – 1 hour ago
ISLAMABAD — Citing security concerns, the U.N. suspended long-term development work in two key areas along Pakistan's volatile border with Afghanistan on Monday, a blow to international efforts to counter the country's rising militancy.
Underscoring the militant threat, an explosion near a bank killed four people and wounded more than a dozen in the capital's neighboring city of Rawalpindi, said police official Kashif Ayaz.
The U.N.'s decision, which applies to Pakistan's tribal areas and North West Frontier Province, comes amid a wave of recent attacks in the country that killed some 250 people last month. Eleven U.N. staff have been killed in attacks in Pakistan this year.
The U.N. will reduce the level of international staff in the country and confine its work to emergency, humanitarian relief, and security operations, and also "any other essential operations as advised by the secretary-general," the organization said in a statement.
U.N. spokeswoman Amena Kamaal told The Associated Press that the organization is still determining which programs will be suspended and how many staffers will be withdrawn from the country. The staff that remains will be assigned additional security, she said.
"We have had 11 of our colleagues killed because of the security situation," said Kamaal. "All of the decisions are being made in light of that."
Monday's blast in Rawalpindi, only a few miles (kilometers) from Islamabad, may have been caused by explosives planted in a car in a parking lot, said the police official, Ayaz.
An eyewitness, Zahid Dara, said the explosion was huge.
"I was nearby and rushed toward the parking area," Dara told Dunya television. "There were many people lying on the ground with bleeding wounds, and a motorcycle was on fire with one man under it."
Local television showed ambulances rushing to the scene of the blast, which occurred in a neighborhood not far from the army's main headquarters. Militants raided the compound last month and held off security forces in a 22-hour siege before being killed.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said he would reserve comment on the U.N.'s decision to suspend long-term development work until he had a chance to review the group's statement.
The U.N. has been deeply involved in helping Pakistan deal with refugee crises that have popped up because of army offensives against militants in the northwest. It assisted in relief camps set up to house some of the 2 million people displaced by an operation launched this spring in the Swat Valley.
It is also providing relief goods for those forced to leave South Waziristan because of an offensive last month against the Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold in the tribal areas. Militants have responded to the operations by launching a wave of attacks against security forces and civilians, including U.N. personnel.
On Oct. 5, a suicide bomber struck an office of the World Food Program in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, killing five people. U.N. workers were also among the 11 killed in a June suicide bombing of the Pearl Continental Hotel in the main northwest city of Peshawar, while a veteran U.N. official was shot dead along with a guard while resisting kidnappers at a northwest Pakistan refugee camp in July.
The U.S. has encouraged the Pakistani government to persevere in its military campaign against Taliban and al-Qaida militants that have used the country's border region as a sanctuary to launch attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Washington has also stepped up efforts to use development work in Pakistan as a way to alleviate poverty and lessen the allure of religious extremism. The U.S. has pledged to pump $7.5 billion over the next five years to improve Pakistan's economy, education and other non-military sectors.
The U.N.'s decision to suspend long-term development could make it more difficult for the U.S. and the Pakistani government to counter militancy in the country by improving the lives of the people.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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