PESHAWAR, Dec 9: Arab relief agencies are in a fix whether or not to resume their operations inside Afghanistan after the fall of Taliban government in Kabul.

“In the prevailing situation there, it is not advisable for Arabs as well as Pakistanis to work inside Afghanistan,” an Arab national, working with an NGO, told Dawn.

He said his organisation had also suspended activities in Kabul, Paktia and some other areas of the war-battered country, because of the prevailing uncertainty.

Seven relief agencies, Afghan Support Committee, World Assembly of Muslim Youth, Kuwait Joint Relief Committee, Islamic Relief Agency, Saudi Red Crescent Society, International Islamic Relief Organisation and Lajnat Aldawa Al-Islamia based in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Sudan have been working inside Afghanistan for the past one decade.

In addition, the Arab relief agencies are also engaged in humanitarian activities in refugee camps in Pakistan, running schools and health units and providing food assistance.

These Arab NGOs had pulled out their more than 200 staff from Afghanistan for security reasons and suspended their activities, including food distribution and community development.

Sensing threat to their aid workers, the western relief agencies are also indecisive about sending their expatriate staff into Afghanistan. After Sept 11, western NGOs had withdrawn their expatriate staff from Afghanistan.

More than five million Afghans, including the internally displaced people, were suffering as a result of this suspension.

The donor and relief agencies have decided to send their staff into Afghanistan after receiving assurances from the local authorities, the sources said.

HOSPITAL: After facing bureaucratic red tape in the NWFP, a UAE-based NGO, shifted its 100-bedded hospital, meant for Afghan refugees from tribal area to Balochistan.