ISLAMABAD: At least five UN officials, a foreigner and two women among them, were killed and eight others injured on Monday when a suicide bomber dressed as a paramilitary soldier blew himself up after slipping through high security checkpoints at the main office of the World Food Programme.

The United Nations temporarily closed all its offices in the country after the first terrorist attack on an office of the world body in the federal capital in several years.

‘The attacker, wearing the uniform of the Frontier Constabulary, whose personnel are deployed on the street, broke through the security cordon when private guards allowed him to use the toilet in the WFP offices,’ Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. ‘He was carrying around 8kgs of explosives.’

However, senior investigation officers said they had not ruled out the possibility that the bomber was an FC man.

The investigators detained an FC man on duty and a private security guard posted at the office’s gate.

An official said it was premature to say anything about the bomber’s identity, but the possibility that he was a serving or ex-member of the paramilitary force could not be ruled out.

Another top security official said if it was established that the attacker belonged to the FC, it might change the entire dynamics of not just the investigation, but the counter-terror operation.

The incident will be discussed at a high-level meeting on Tuesday in which the Frontier Constabulary’s commandant will also participate.

The dead were identified as Iraqi national Botan Ali, Gul Rukh, Farzana, Abidur Rehman and Wahab.

The street in the F-8/3 residential sector, the scene of the bombing, is regarded as one of the most tightly secured places in the city. Heavily-guarded barricades keep watch at the two ends and the WFP building had a scanning mechanism at the entrance with hydraulic blockers at the main gate and metal detector at the side gate.

Both the places were manned by a private security company and FC personnel provided additional security. President Asif Ali Zardari’s private residence across the road and homes of several senior politicians and ambassadors in the vicinity had made it one of the most secured areas in the capital. Dozens of police, paramilitary and private security men man the streets and houses.
 
The footage of a closed-circuit TV camera showed a man in FC uniform walking up to the door of one of the offices in the compound. As he shut the door behind him, another person walked towards it, but before he could enter, an explosion took place and a flash of light blurred everything.

A WFP worker said the blast destroyed furniture in the room and knocked down doors and windows in a few others. But as arrangements to protect the staff from such attacks were in place, only those present in the vicinity where the bomber detonated the device were hit.

Apparently, no damage was caused to the perimeter of the building, but its first floor, especially the finance department, was destroyed. About 20 people worked at the department.

A fire caused by the explosion was quickly extinguished.

Officials pointed out that the attack took place a day after the new leader of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Hakimullah, had threatened fresh assaults amid reports that a military operation was going to be launched in Waziristan.
‘We have found two limbs, skull and hair of the bomber,’ Deputy Inspector General of Police Bin Yamin said.

‘The attacker, who was in his 20s, detonated his explosives in the lobby. It is unclear how he made that far. Visitors to UN buildings in Islamabad are screened and searched for weapons and explosives in secure chambers at a distance from the entrance,’ he added.

Several people, including guards of the private security agency deployed at the office, were arrested and being interrogated by police. ‘There was a loud bang and something hit me. I fell on the floor bleeding,’ inventory manager Tariq Khan told Dawn.He said he found several bodies lying on the floor of the lobby. ‘We picked them and shifted them to different hospitals.’

The entry of the attacker was a mystery for Col (retd) Khalid Nawaz Abbasi, the chief security officer of the security firm, Phoenix. He was of the view that no one could enter the building without screening.

‘It is difficult to take a bomb into the building as we do not even allow mobile phones of staff members who are allowed to enter after complete screening and checking of their official cards,’ he said. He expressed his doubts about the nature of the attack. ‘If it was a bomb blast it would have destroyed the entire building.’

Senator Sadia Abbasi, who lives across the street, told Dawn that she saw two UN vehicles entering the building a few seconds before the explosion.

The interior ministry formed a joint investigation team headed by DIG Bin Yamin.

The British defence and home ministers were also in the capital when the attack took place.

The UN’s Resident Coordinator, Fikret Akcura, announced: ‘In light of this incident all UN offices in Pakistan have been closed till further notice.’ He urged the authorities to do everything possible for arresting the culprits.

Reuters adds: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the attack a ‘heinous crime’.

‘This is a terrible tragedy for the UN and for the whole humanitarian community in Pakistan,’ he said in a statement condemning the bombing ‘in the strongest terms’.