U.N. office in Pak receives threats, staff to stay at home

Islamabad, July 3 (PTI) A United Nations office in the
Pakistani capital received a threatening phone call, prompting
the organisation to ask its staffers to stay at home due to
the security threat.
A threatening phone call was made to a Gender Support
Programme office of the U.N. here on Tuesday and
investigations are underway, U.N. Communication Officer Amna
Ali Kamal said.
A suicide car bomb attack outside the Danish Embassy here
last month had caused extensive damage to the office of a
U.N.-backed non-governmental organisation. Eight persons were
killed in that attack.
Rejecting reports about the closure of U.N. offices in
Pakistan due to the threating call, Kamal told the Daily Times
newspaper that U.N. authorities had asked staffers of the
Gender Support Programme office to remain at home and keep in
touch via the Internet.
"One of our staffers working at the office of Gender
Support Programme being run in collaboration with UNDP had
received a threatening phone call and the police are tracing
out the unidentified caller as the government cannot take such
things lightly," she said.
The security at all U.N. offices is already tight and they
are functioning normally, she said. The U.N. is working on a
plan to relocate all its offices to the high-security
Diplomatic Enclave. The construction of a pre-fabricated
building is already under way at the enclave.