Possibility of CIA infiltration - Pakistan kicks out aid agency

Save the Children's foreign staff have been ordered to leave Pakistan within two weeks, the aid agency confirms.

It says it has been given no reason for the order, but correspondents say the move is thought be fall-out from the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden.

Following the raid, a Pakistani doctor was arrested for working for the CIA.

Pakistani intelligence officials accuse Save the Children of involvement - the group denies the claims. Six of its staff in Pakistan are foreigners.

The charity has worked in Pakistan for more than 30 years. Correspondents say that it is not thought that the forthcoming expulsions will have any significant impact on its operations in the country in the short term.

Dr Shakil Afridi was arrested after it emerged he had been running a fake vaccination programme on behalf of the CIA as part of efforts to track Bin Laden, who was killed by US special forces in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad in May last year.
The US authorities say Dr Afridi provided "very helpful" information for the raid and have called for his release.

Although Pakistan and the US are ostensibly partners in the fight against militancy, the Pakistani authorities viewed his actions as treason.
Media reports say Dr Afridi was in contact with staff of the charity.

But the Save the Children spokesman said that Dr Afridi had never been paid for any work by the charity and had never run any of its vaccination programmes - although he had attended a seminar shortly before his arrest.

"We never knowingly employ anyone who has worked for the CIA or any other security service," the spokesman said. "It is totally against our impartial humanitarian mandate... Save the Children is a global organisation and has a zero tolerance policy for people involved in work that is not humanitarian.