QUETTA, June 7: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other foreign non-government organizations did not resume their relief operation in Balochistan on Monday against the backdrop of threats of suicide attacks on their offices.

The UNHCR suspended its voluntary repatriation programme in the province after dispatching the last registered 138 Afghan refugee families to Afghanistan on Monday. The caravan of the refugees that left for Afghanistan included 93 families from Quetta and 45 from Karachi.

A few members of the UNHCR staff were called to the repatriation centre. All the offices of the UNHCR and other international relief organizations remained closed. Only security staff was present there.

"We have stopped registration of Afghan refugees under voluntary repatriation programme till further orders," UNHCR sources said and added that other relief operations would also remain suspended till improvement in the situation.

Sources said the UNHCR and five other foreign NGOs had suspended their work on the directives of UN security officials in Islamabad. "We will obey directives of UN security officials regarding restarting relief operations in Balochistan," an official of a foreign NGO said.

All the foreign staff of the UNHCR and other international relief organizations was still staying in the only four-star hotel of the provincial capital under strict security arrangements.

Sources said some foreigners working in an NGO left for Islamabad. Provincial Home Secretary Abdul Rauf Khan assured UNHCR and other NGOs of protection and asked them to resume their work. "The threat was of a minimum level, but it exists," he told representatives of the NGOs during a meeting.