In apparent fallout from Bin Laden raid, aid group booted from Pakistan
The government of Pakistan shuttered the offices of the international aid agency Save the Children on Thursday and ordered any foreign workers with the organization to leave the country within 15 days.
The order was the apparent culmination of years of allegations that Save the Children cooperated with the CIA in tracking down Osama bin Laden at a hide-out in Abbottabad. The organization, based in Britain, has denied any involvement.
A police officer guarded the front gate of Save the Children’s Islamabad offices after the Interior Ministry issued the expulsion order.
The order came three days after the Pakistani government created a commission to oversee the activities of the international organizations working in Pakistan. Of the 121 international groups working in Pakistan, licenses of about 15, including Save the Children, have been revoked recently.
A police officer guarded the front gate of Save the Children’s Islamabad offices after the Interior Ministry issued the expulsion order.
The order came three days after the Pakistani government created a commission to oversee the activities of the international organizations working in Pakistan. Of the 121 international groups working in Pakistan, licenses of about 15, including Save the Children, have been revoked recently.
Authorities have accused Save the Children of introducing U.S. officials to Dr. Shakeel Afridi, who purportedly led a hepatitis B vaccination campaign in Abbottabad in an effort to collect DNA evidence from Bin Laden’s compound. Save the Children has said the organization played no such role.
The expulsion order was not the first for Save the Children, which has worked in Pakistan for 35 years. Foreign workers with the organization were ordered to leave the country in 2012, also in response to the U.S. raid that killed Bin Laden. However, it appears that the expulsion was never carried out.
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