Safriz
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Pakistan orders aid workers for a charity to leave the country.
Pakistan is expelling all expatriate aid workers with Save the Children,
according to a spokesman, following suspicions that a doctor used the
charity as cover for a CIA operation. The British aid agency has always denied any connection to a
vaccination campaign run by Shakil Afridi in Abbottabad as part of the
hunt for Osama bin Laden. Earlier this year its country representative in Pakistan, David Wright,
condemned Western powers for using aid programmes as cover for
intelligence gathering and said the tactic was putting lives at risk. On Thursday, Ghulam Qadri, the group's director for programme
planning and communications, revealed the charity had been told its
six foreign employees had to be out of Pakistan within four weeks. Mr Qadri said no reason had been given. "The allegations that have appeared in the media that Afridi worked
with Save The Children and that Afridi was introduced to CIA by our
staff, there is no truth to these allegations and no concrete evidence to
support them," he said. Dr Afridi was arrested soon after the operation to kill bin Laden last
year. He has been sentenced to 33 years in prison. He is believed to have set
up a vaccination campaign in Abbottabad as a ruse to obtain blood
samples from people living in bin Laden's house, as the CIA sought DNA
confirmation that they had found the al-Qaeda leader. Security sources quoted by local media suggest Dr Afridi told
interrogators that he had been working for Save the Children. As a result this year staff have been denied visas and found shipments
of vital medical supplies delayed by reams of red tape, hampering vital
work. The charity has operated in Pakistan for the past 30 years, employing
more than 2,000 Pakistani staff. No one from Pakistan's Ministry of the Interior was available to
comment.
Pakistan expels Save the Children's foreign staff - Telegraph
Pakistan is expelling all expatriate aid workers with Save the Children,
according to a spokesman, following suspicions that a doctor used the
charity as cover for a CIA operation. The British aid agency has always denied any connection to a
vaccination campaign run by Shakil Afridi in Abbottabad as part of the
hunt for Osama bin Laden. Earlier this year its country representative in Pakistan, David Wright,
condemned Western powers for using aid programmes as cover for
intelligence gathering and said the tactic was putting lives at risk. On Thursday, Ghulam Qadri, the group's director for programme
planning and communications, revealed the charity had been told its
six foreign employees had to be out of Pakistan within four weeks. Mr Qadri said no reason had been given. "The allegations that have appeared in the media that Afridi worked
with Save The Children and that Afridi was introduced to CIA by our
staff, there is no truth to these allegations and no concrete evidence to
support them," he said. Dr Afridi was arrested soon after the operation to kill bin Laden last
year. He has been sentenced to 33 years in prison. He is believed to have set
up a vaccination campaign in Abbottabad as a ruse to obtain blood
samples from people living in bin Laden's house, as the CIA sought DNA
confirmation that they had found the al-Qaeda leader. Security sources quoted by local media suggest Dr Afridi told
interrogators that he had been working for Save the Children. As a result this year staff have been denied visas and found shipments
of vital medical supplies delayed by reams of red tape, hampering vital
work. The charity has operated in Pakistan for the past 30 years, employing
more than 2,000 Pakistani staff. No one from Pakistan's Ministry of the Interior was available to
comment.
Pakistan expels Save the Children's foreign staff - Telegraph
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