Bomb Blast in United nation office Islamabad
A suicide bomber penetrated a highly fortified United Nations office in Islamabad this morning, killing five staff in an explosion that triggered a citywide security alert.
The UN swiftly announced the temporary closure of its Pakistan offices following the blast that killed five, including two Pakistani women and one Iraqi. All worked for the World Food Programme (WFP).
There was no claim of responsibility but immediate suspicions fell on the Taliban, which has attacked the capital several times.
Police said the attacker, thought to be aged between 22 and 25, blew himself up between the lobby and the finance department. Witnesses described hearing a large explosion then finding their colleagues lying in a pool of blood on the floor.
The interior minister, Rehman Malik, said that the suicide attacker was disguised as a Frontier Corps paramilitary soldier. He warned of further attacks in other Pakistani cities.
"We will take action against them as we did in Swat and Malakand," he said. "I have asked the security services to be very alert."
The WFP office is located in one of Islamabad's most highly secured neighbourhoods. President Asif Ali Zardari's private residence is a few hundred metres away, while another UN office is across the street.
Visitors to the WFP office normally pass through a barricade and metal scanners but there were no signs of a forced entry. The compound is protected by a three-storey-high wall of Hesco barriers – fabric-lined mesh containers filled with sand – making it one of the most conspicuously guarded buildings in the capital.
The police chief, Binyamin Khan, said he was investigating reports that the attacker jumped the wall from the balcony of an adjoining house, which belongs to a former Pakistani intelligence chief.
He said the bomb was a small one, containing 5-7kg of explosives. At least five people were injured, two seriously, the WFP said.
UN staff across Islamabad were ordered to evacuate their offices and return home immediately.
The attack underscores the ongoing capability of Pakistan's Taliban militants despite the death of their leader, Baitullah Mehsud, in a US drone strike in August.
Yesterday the group's self-declared successor, Hakimullah Mehsud, appeared before reporters in South Waziristan, vowing to avenge the former leader's death with strikes on both Pakistan and the US.
The WFP is involved in distributing free food to people displaced by fighting between the army and the Taliban in Swat and across North-West Frontier province.
The US has carried out more than 70 drone attacks in the tribal belt along the Afghan border over the past year. The most prominent recent victim was Qari Tahir Yuldashev, the feared commander of thousands of Uzbek militants hiding in North and South Waziristan. He was killed in a drone strike last month.
The US has caused a furore in Pakistan by suggesting it may extend the drone operations, which are controlled by its Central Intelligence Agency, to targets in western Balochistan. Although parts of the province are as lawless as the tribal belt, most Pakistanis consider it "mainland" Pakistan.
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