ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The United Nations is raising its security level in Pakistan after a suicide truck bomb killed 55 people last month, and children of international staff will have to leave the country, a U.N. official said on Thursday.
The decision is another indication of growing unease about deteriorating security in Pakistan and comes after the government issued assurances about efforts to protect foreigners after the September 20 attack on one of the capital's top hotels.
"Phase three has been approved by the secretary general," said U.N. information officer Ishrat Rizvi, referring to a security level under which dependents of U.N. staff have to leave a country.
The United Nations remained committed to Pakistan and the new security level would have no impact on its operations, she said.
"It's a matter of only evacuating the children of international staff members which doesn't make any difference to the work of the United Nations," she said.
Rizvi said the United Nations would later be issuing details about the decision and why it had been taken.
Britain is withdrawing the children of its diplomats from Pakistan following the bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel, the Foreign Office said on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Robert Birsel; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
