ISLAMABAD (DPA) — Pakistan sealed the offices of international non-profit Save the Children and ordered its foreign employees to leave the country within 15 days, for alleged activities against the national interest, officials said on Friday.
"We have been monitoring various international and local NGOs and Save the Children was found working against the interests of Pakistan," an official of the Interior Ministry told dpa, without providing further details.
The main office of Save the Children in Islamabad was closed down late Thursday night and police stationed outside, said Kamran Cheema, a senior administrator in the capital.
The organization drew attention in 2011 after the arrest of a doctor allegedly involved in a fake anti-polio campaign on behalf of the US Central Intelligence Agency to confirm the presence of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in the north-western city of Abbottabad.
The NGO has denied any link with doctor Shakil Afridi or the CIA.
Bin Laden was killed in a raid by US special forces on May 2, 2011. Afridi was arrested a year later and jailed for treason over links to another militant group.
Pakistan has been monitoring and tightening control over NGOs on its territory since the incident, according to officials.
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