Taliban claim responsibility for UN suicide blast

It also exposed the vulnerability of many international relief agencies working to provide aid to millions of civilians affected by the fight between the government and Islamic militant groups.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik accused the Taliban of carrying out the attack to avenge the August 5 killing of their leader, Baitullah Mehsud, in a US drone attack.

Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq confirmed that his group was behind the bombing and lashed out at foreign aid workers.

“We proudly claim the responsibility for the suicide attack at the UN office in Islamabad. We will send more bombers for such attacks,” he said.

“The UN and other foreign (aid groups) are not working for the interest of Muslims. We are watching their activities. They are infidels.”

He said the Taliban would not target Muslim relief groups.

He added that future targets would include Pakistani security officials, government offices and American installations.

World Food Programme spokesman Amjad Jamal defended the agency’s work as “totally humanitarian”.

“We provide food. Our food is for the vulnerable groups, the poor groups who cannot afford one meal a day,” he said.

The suicide bomber in yesterday’s attack was dressed as a security officer and was allowed to enter the World Food Programme offices – apparently bypassing the normal security procedures – after asking the guards outside if he could use the toilet.

After the attack, the UN announced that it was temporarily closing all its offices in Pakistan, but said its Pakistani partner organisations would continue distributing food, medicine and other humanitarian assistance. It said it would reassess the situation over the next several days.

Mr Malik, visiting those injured in the bombing at a Pakistani hospital, said the government had taken several of the guards outside the UN offices into custody for questioning as part of the investigation into the security lapse.

“All the security arrangements were in place at the UN office,” he said.

The United Nations considers itself a major target in Pakistan. Many of its offices are surrounded by 12ft-high blast walls. Its staff members are driven in bulletproof cars and not allowed to take their families with them on assignment in the country.

The World Food Programme compound, which employs more than 70 people, is surrounded by square metal cages filled with sand and small stones used to protect against blasts and projectiles.

“This was one of the best-protected UN centres in all of Pakistan,” UN spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters at the world body’s headquarters in New York.

“We were really quite heavily guarded at least at that compound. How that person got in, that is still being investigated, and we’re trying to find out from surveillance cameras.”

The UN closed its offices in the country until its security team determined it was safe for them to reopen.

“They will assess the situation. They are talking to the authorities and then they will decide on a further course of action,” Mr Jamal said.

Extremists in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq seeking to attack high-profile Western targets have shown no hesitation in striking foreign humanitarian agencies, including the United Nations, regardless of the work they are doing in relieving the suffering in the countries.

A blast in June on a luxury hotel housing many foreign aid workers in the north-western city of Peshawar killed two UN workers and wounded others.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said those killed in yesterday’s bombing were serving a “noble cause”,

“They will be remembered for their commendable services by the people of Pakistan,” he wrote in a letter to UN Secretary-General Bank Ki-moon, according to state-run media.

“Such cowardly terrorist acts will never weaken our resolve to fight against this scourge. We will continue to work with the international community and the United Nations with greater vigour to root out terrorism from our country and the region at large.”

The attack came a day after the new Pakistani Taliban leader met reporters close to the Afghan border, vowing more attacks in response to US missile strikes on militant targets in Pakistan.

Ending speculation that he had been killed, Hakimullah Mehsud denied government claims that the militants were in disarray and said his fighters would repel any army offensive on their stronghold in South Waziristan.

Mr Malik said the government was already targeting Taliban militants in South Waziristan and “if needed, a further action shall also be taken at an appropriate time” against militants in other areas along the Afghan border.

“We will fight all of them,” said the minister, referring to the militant groups.