PESHAWAR, March 25: The United Nations has asked its staffers to limit their movements only to the city following the missiles attack on the provincial metropolis on late Tuesday night, official sources told Dawn on Thursday.
"On Wednesday, the UN-related offices remained closed in the city. Now all the offices are operating, but they have been asked to restrict their activities to Peshawar city only," said the sources.
They said that in the wake of growing security problems faced by the UN personnel around the world, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United Nations Security Organisation (UNSO), had been organizing special training for its staffers to enable them deal with security problems.
"The world agency has already cautioned its workers, particularly expatriate staff, against visiting the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), without security guards," said sources.
The sources revealed that they had been advised by the UNSO to drive only between Peshawar and Islamabad and had strictly banned travelling in the interior parts of the provincial capital.
They said that halting the UN activities would adversely affect the anti-polio campaign. But the sources said that they had to abide by the rules of the UN. They said that a few months back a UN vehicle was fired at by some miscreants near Peshawar that had raised alarm bells among the other staff.
Sources conceded that the UN staff were also vulnerable as their offices were located inside the government-owned buildings, where there was no check on the entry of the people as well as cars. They said that all the UN staff in Peshawar had been asked by the UNSO to gather at a designated venue in case of any untoward incident.
