UN refugee agency condemns attack on displaced persons camp in northern Pakistan

The United Nations refuge agency today urged the Government of Pakistan to improve security around the country’s largest camp for internally displaced people after a deadly bomb attack left at least 10 people dead, including an aid worker, and led UN agencies to temporarily suspend humanitarian services in the camp.

“UNHCR is appalled by the bomb attack that took place yesterday in a camp for internally displaced people in northern Pakistan,” the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Adrian Edwards, told journalists in Geneva.

The attack in Jalozai camp, near Peshawar in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killed 10 residents and an aid worker from a local non-governmental organization. Many of the residents are families who escaped fighting along the border with Afghanistan.

“As of today all humanitarian services at Jalozai camp have been suspended while UN agencies assess the security situation,” Mr. Edwards said.

He reiterated UNHCR’s call to make sure that internally displaced people and humanitarian workers are safe and not targeted. “We are also urging on all sides to respect civilian lives and the sanctity of humanitarian work.”

“We join the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan in expressing our deep condolences and sympathy with the families of all those who lost their lives or were injured in the attack,” he added.

According to media reports, the blast came from a car packed with explosives that blew up near an area where hundreds of people queued to get food.