Pakistan government orders Save the Children’s Islamabad office to close

Pakistan has shut the offices of the international aid group Save the Children in the capital, Islamabad, without giving any reason, officials say.

Pakistani officials placed a lock on the gate of the group’s offices and asked employees to leave yesterday.

Today, two government officials said the action was taken on orders from the Ministry of Interior.

Save the Children has previously been accused by Pakistani intelligence agencies of facilitating a Pakistani doctor’s vaccinations programme in the city of Abbottabad as cover for the CIA to obtain DNA samples at a compound where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was later killed by US commandos.