A security guard pictured at the ICRC compound in Balochistan, where operations have been suspended
Keystone
The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has suspended activities in a further two Pakistani provinces in the wake of the murder of one of its health workers last month.
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Khalil Rasjed Dale, a 60-year-old health programme manager in Quetta, Balochistan, was murdered four months after he was kidnapped in January while returning from work.
The ICRC said in a statement on Thursday it was reviewing all of its Pakistani operations following the killing and had suspended activities conducted from offices in Peshawar and Karachi. Operations in the Balochistan province were frozen in the aftermath of the killing.
“We are painfully aware that these measures are having a severe and far-reaching impact on wounded, sick, physically disabled and other vulnerable people,” said Paul Castella, head of the ICRC delegation in Pakistan.
“We are currently analysing the situation and the environment with a view to setting out a clear and sustainable way forward. In the coming weeks, the ICRC will announce a decision on its future presence and set-up in Pakistan.”
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