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A suicide bomber dressed in military uniform has attacked the UN World Food Program offices in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, killing five people. Four of the dead are Pakistanis, the fifth is an Iraqi. The bomber died too. It is unclear who is responsible but suspicion will fall on the Pakistani Taliban, correspondents say. They promised revenge for the killing of their leader Baitullah Mehsud in a US drone strike in August and have been behind a series of recent attacks. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Amjad Jamal, who is a spokesman for the WFP in Islamabad and was friends with those who lost their lives.
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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is the World. Militants in Pakistan have carried out scores of attacks during the past few years. Several of them have targeted foreigners, so today’s attack in the capital, Islamabad, was in one sense not all that surprising, but in another sense, it was shocking. A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a heavily fortified UN compound. Five employees of the World Food Program were killed. They were colleagues of Amjad Jamal. He’s a spokesman for the World Food Program in Islamabad. And Amjad, first of all, we’re very sorry for the loss of your colleagues. Now, you weren’t in the building at the time of the attack, but you did rush back. Have you been able to kind of piece together what exactly happened?
AMJAD JAMAL: Yes, indeed. I was in Musafirabad, as you mentioned, and I was not in Islamabad. I was on a duty travel, and I heard from my colleague in Islamabad that there’s a blast in our office. It was found out that a suicide bomber somehow managed to get into our building, and that’s where he blew himself up.
WERMAN: Now this is a heavily fortified compound, and we know most of this now based on security cameras. But given how heavy the security is, is there any sense now how the attacker actually managed to penetrate the premises?
JAMAL: The footage and the evidence collected from the scene, and also the briefing made by the interior minister did also suggest that this suicide bomber was in an Armed Forces uniform. And somehow, he did not enter from the main gate, but he entered from the other side of it where our vehicles are parked.
WERMAN: And this was, we should remind our listeners, this was your workplace. That’s got to be terrifying, not just that it happened, but at your workplace, a policeman impostor managed to get inside.
JAMAL: Absolutely right. This is worrisome, how someone can just enter into a UN compound or UN building and can damage.
WERMAN: The World Food Program has a noble mission, feeding the hungry. Do you have any idea why you were targeted?
JAMAL: Indeed, the United Nations system in Pakistan has earlier received threats from the militants and from these extremist elements. Our work is serving humanity. We are feeding the hungry too. And also in Pakistan, as you know, there are food crises, there are economic crises. So targeting humanitarians and targeting humanitarian agencies will not only hamper our humanitarian work, but it will also attack the poor of our country.
WERMAN: You referred to the people who perpetrated this act as militants and extremist elements. Do they have a name? Do you know more specifically who it might be?
JAMAL: Nobody has claimed any responsibility yet of this particular suicidal attack, and earlier, the threats received were from various smallest organizations.
WERMAN: Now, Amjad, five of your colleagues were killed today, people you knew and whom you worked with. Tell us something about them.
JAMAL: Yes, indeed. This is absolutely heartbreaking. These colleagues, four of them, the national ones, I have worked with them for so many years. I’ve known them since 2003. It’s a very long association that I had with them. These are really very, very dear colleagues. I mean, the entire staff of WFP, I know each of them personally, because of me traveling a lot in the area of our operations. And these colleagues were like the lady at the reception. We deal with her, say every second hour, we talk to her, we have some common issues that we discuss, we have official issues to discuss. The guys in finance, you know, everybody goes to finance quite often. These were really problem solvers, not problem creators, on official issues, on personal issues. I really have no words to express. I’m really sad, tomorrow or day after when I go to the office, I will not see their faces.
WERMAN: Amjad Jamal is spokesman for the World Food Program in Islamabad, whose offices were attacked today by a suicide bomber. Our condolences again, Mr. Jamal. Thank you for your time.
JAMAL: Thank you very much indeed, Marco.
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