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NGO workers begin leaving Afghanistan

Expatriate workers of Western aid agencies and United Nations staff stationed in different cities of the war ravaged Afghanistan have started leaving the country as fears of US retaliatory attacks hover on the horizon since Tuesday's terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

Not only the UN but neutral agencies like the International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) too have decided to pull out from Afghanistan for the time being.

"Messages have been aired to leave immediately," said an official of a western NGO in Peshawar. He added the decision was taken for the security of the staffers of Western nationalities, especially Americans and Britishers.

"We are considering relocation of our staff temporarily outside Afghanistan due to growing security reasons," UN spokesperson in Islamabad Stephanie Bankar said.

"They have shifted to Peshawar and Islamabad in neighbouring Pakistan," said another UN source.

UN has more than 80 international staff members in different cities and towns of Afghanistan, including Jalalabad, Kandahar, Herat, and Faizabad.

Sources at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border at Torkham confirmed that about a dozen foreigners crossed over into Pakistan on Wednesday. "At least 12 Western NGO workers have reached Peshawar," said a government official.

It is generally believed that pull out of the Western expatriates indicates the possibility of a retaliatory attack by the US against the Taleban rulers or their Arabian guest Osama Bin Laden, a wanted man in the US.

Earlier, executives of about a dozen NGOs working in Afghanistan met in a hurriedly called meeting at the office of the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR), a representative body of NGOs working in Afghanistan in Peshawar, on Wednesday morning and identified 41 expatriate aid workers for return from Afghanistan.

They included 23 in the Afghan capital Kabul and 18 in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

An ACBAR publication says a total of 331 permanently enrolled aid workers from Western countries are stationed in different parts of Afghanistan.

"Many others, however, also visit the country frequently, while permanent ones are transferred or go on leave," said an ACBAR official, explaining that the figure does not reflect a true picture.

The ACBAR publication puts the total number of NGOs from more than a dozen western countries working inside Afghanistan at 70, including five relief organisations with their headquarters in the United States of America (USA).

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