QUETTA, June 6: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Quetta, and five foreign NGOs have stopped working in Balochistan after receiving threats of suicide attacks at their offices , and their foreign staffs have been shifted from their residences to a hotel here.

The UNHCR has suspended new registration of Afghan refugees under the voluntary repatriation programme in Balochistan from Monday in response to threats.

"All our foreign staff shifted in the hotel as a precautionary measure," Babar Baloch, spokesman for the Quetta UNHCR, told Dawn, adding that the staff members of the five foreign NGOs had also left their residences, taking shelter in the hotel.

The high-ups and security officials of the five NGOs have directed their staff in Quetta to keep themselves away from their offices and residences until security clearance.

The local staff of the UNHCR and these NGOs asked their local staff members not to come to office till further orders. "Offices of the UNHCR and the five NGOs have been closed and local staff told not to attend office until they are asked to do so," Mr Baloch said.

He said under the repatriation programme some families of Afghan refugees left for Afghanistan on Sunday from the UNHCR centre and another group of refugees would also proceed to their homeland on Monday as they were already registered with the UNHCR. However, new registration would be suspended from Monday for indefinite period, he added.