ISLAMABAD, Feb 18: The United Nations and the Afghan interim administration have started investigations into the attack on a Unicef worker in Mazar-i-Sharif, a Unicef spokesperson said on Monday.

Unidentified gunmen critically injured a Unicef employee in Mazar-i-Sharif raising fears among the United Nations officials and NGO workers about the precarious security situation in parts of Afghanistan, Unicef Spokesperson Chulho Hyun told newsmen.

He said the critically-injured 40-year-old Afghan aid worker had been shifted to Islamabad for treatment of four gunshot wounds. The patient was initially treated at the Jordanian army hospital in Mazar, he said.

In reply to a question, the spokesperson said the aid worker was injured when unidentified gunmen broke into his house on Saturday morning. The gunmen opened fire on the worker, who was “heavily” coordinating the Unicef “back to school campaign.”

The spokesperson said the name of the injured worker “cannot be revealed for security reasons.”

Responding to a question about the security situation in Afghanistan, the spokesperson said that in a spate of security related incidents, UN officials and NGO workers had been targeted. Security in various parts of the country continued to remain unstable and fluid, he said.

According to sources, another worker employed with a British NGO, Focus, was kidnapped in Mazar-i-Sharif recently.

About the back to school campaign in Afghanistan, the spokesperson said a packing plant for stationary kits for school kids in Afghanistan started production in Peshawar on Monday. Two stationary kits would roll off the production line every minute at Unicef’s classroom materials packing plant, starting a huge logistic operation to bring education to Afghan children, he said.

He said the plant would produce nearly 40,000 kits.

A second phase of distribution would provide learning materials for different grades, including an additional five million textbooks, he said.

Official school year in Afghanistan begins on March 21.