Pakistani authorities have expelled foreign staff of the Save The Children aid group, apparently in connection with government suspicion about U.S. spy links.
An agency official said on September 6 that the decision is based on a belief that the charity helped U.S. spies who were hunting for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before a U.S. operation killed him in May 2011.
Ghulam Qadri, the group's director for communications, said Pakistan's Interior Ministry told the group its six foreign employees must leave Pakistan within two weeks. He said the ministry gave no reason for the decision.
News reports alleged that Save The Children helped facilitate meetings between U.S. agents and a Pakistani doctor who helped the Central Intelligence Agency find bin Laden.
Save The Children, active in Pakistan for 30 years, has some 2,000 Pakistani staff.
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