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UN Relocates Some Staff in Pakistan

   VOA News 31 December 2009

   The  United  Nations  says  it  is  temporarily relocating at least 20
   percent of international staff members in Pakistan because of security
   concerns.
   U.N. spokeswoman Ishrat Rizvi says the staff members will either leave
   the   country   or  be  moved  to  safer  areas  in  Pakistan.    News
   organizations quote Rizvi and a U.N. staffer in Pakistan as saying the
   relocation measures will last about six months.
   At  least  11  U.N.  workers  have  been  killed in Pakistan this year
   including  five  in  an October bombing at the U.N. World Food Program
   headquarters in Islamabad.
   The  Wall Street Journal newspaper says only "nonessential" U.N. staff
   members are being moved and the relocations will not affect efforts to
   help   people  displaced  by  fighting  between  Pakistan's  army  and
   militants.
   Meanwhile,  Pakistani  security  forces have raided a hospital used by
   militants in the South Waziristan tribal region, killing at least four
   foreign fighters.
   Officials  said  Pakistani forces also arrested more than 20 suspected
   militants in Wana, the main town in the region that is a stronghold of
   the Pakistani Taliban.
   On   Wednesday,   the  Taliban's  main  faction  in  Pakistan  claimed
   responsibility  for  Monday's attack on a Shi'ite religious procession
   the  southern  city  of  Karachi  that  killed  at least 43 people.  A
   spokesman warned of more attacks in the coming days.
   Elsewhere,  Pakistani  officials  say  they  have  arrested the senior
   Taliban leader in Punjab province.
   Police  said  Khalil  Ullah  was the mastermind of a bombing at a busy
   market  on  December 7 in the provincial capital of Lahore that killed
   at least 48 people.
   They say an accomplice was also taken into custody.
   The  Pakistani  military  has been carrying out a campaign against the
   Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan.
   Militants  have  retaliated  with bomb and shooting attacks across the
   country.
   Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

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