Pak: Security (or the lack of it) rears its UGLY HEAD as Suicide Bomber blows himself in United Nations Office

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Breaching through the tightly guarded security at the United Nations World Food Program office a suicide bomber blew himself up in the building’s lobby killing a minimum of five staff members. The bomber was dressed in the fatigues of a paramilitary guard assigned on a diplomatic mission.

No individual/organisation has as yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

The deceased have been identified as an office assistant, Farzana Barkat, receptionist Gulrukh Tahir and finance assistants, Abid Rehman and Mohammed Wahab – all Pakistani nationals and an Iraqi, Botan Ahmed AliAhmed Ali al-Hayawi, an officer assigned to the information and communication technology wing of the UNWFP office. May their souls rest in peace!

The building was full of people when the bomb estimated to contain 16 pounds of explosives went off. The bombing is the first direct attack on an United Nations agency in the history of Pakistan.

The immediate reaction from United Nations was to order a closure of all its offices in Pakistan for two days. Ishrat Rizvi, the UN spokeswoman in Islamabad said, “this is a temporary arrangement to ensure the safety and security of our staff,” while assuring that “despite these closures, our humanitarian programs will continue as planned.”

The attack is a horrendously disturbing development given that the United Nations compound is a heavily fortified three-story building equipped with the latest in security infrastructure that includes; video surveillance cameras, explosives detection devices and motion detectors. Both ends of the street leading to the building are barricaded, visitors and vehicles are allowed in only after a thorough security check is carried out and the periphery walls are protected with barbed fencing to ward off infiltrators.

That the breach happened despite all this raises many a disturbing question. How did a heavily armed stranger in the fatigues of a paramilitary trooper make it through a multi-layered security? Was there insider assistance available to the bomber from the security deployed at the building? If so, how deep does the covert assistance run? What additional security measures would the UN now need to put in place to pre-empt such attacks in future?

More importantly, is this attack a warning to the US backed Pakistani Army bracing for a full-fledged offensive on the tribal region of South Waziristan, a Taliban stronghold?

Questions to which one will not readily find easy answers. Perhaps the answer lies in PEACE - not war – the machinations of which probably lie in regions far distant from Pakistan!!

- myVox