NGOs suspend operations in quake-hit Battagram

NGOs working in Pakistan's quake-affected Battagram district have suspended operations after attacks on aid workers.

"We have suspended our operations. Our staff has been evacuated," Michael McGrath, country director of Save the Children US in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) told IRIN, noting that all 95 staff members - international and local - had been moved out of Battagram and the nearby town of Bana.

"Virtually everyone is now out," he said, referring to 15 other NGOs working in Battagram, many of whom have evacuated their staff to the nearby city of Mansehra, with the three key areas affected being Kohistan, Shangla and Battagram.

His comments follow attacks on the humanitarian community in the early hours of 30 October. A separate rocket attack on a local army camp was also reported.

Eight aid workers injured

Eight people were injured, two critically, when an explosive device went off outside the office and residential compound of Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO), a local NGO running health and education projects. Staff were asleep inside.

"We're not sure what happened," Malik Shahbaz, SPO's manager of emergency projects, told IRIN in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. "Most of our staff are now in hospital. Obviously we have stopped operating."

Although they had received threats in the past and had only recently resumed operations following an earlier suspension, they never expected anything like this, Shahbaz said.

"It's more critical now. They targeted our staff intentionally," he said, adding: "It's a miracle they survived."

Also targeted that evening was the Battagram compound of CARE International with 21 staff. It was riddled with automatic gunfire but no injuries were reported.

"We are suspending our operations for at least a week," Daw Mohammad, acting country director for CARE International, told IRIN.

Indications are not good, however, with new signs appearing along the road between Bana and Battagram calling on NGOs to leave the area at once.

"Put together, you have a very clear, definite pattern of a group within the community who want NGOs out and who are willing to use violence to get rid of them," McGrath said. "In those circumstances, we don't want to be there at the moment."

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see also
NGOs concerned about rising insecurity
Islamic extremists attack aid workers