Arshad Butt/AP

Pakistani security officials stand next to covered body of British Red Cross worker Khalil Rasjed Dale at the site in Quetta, Pakistan on Sunday, April 29, 2012.

GENEVA – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday it was halting most of its aid programmes in Pakistan due to deteriorating security and the beheading of a British staff doctor in April blamed on Taliban insurgents.

The independent agency, which had already suspended operations in three of Pakistan’s four provinces in May pending a security assessment, said it would carry on working in the country “but on a reduced scale”.

“All relief and protection activities are being stopped. All projects of rehabilitation, economic projects, have been terminated,” said Jacques de Maio, head of ICRC operations in South Asia, on one of the organisation’s blog.

“We have closed a number of offices. We are also terminating all visits to detainees in Pakistan,” he added.

The agency, which rarely suspends its operations even in war zones, has worked in the country since the end of British colonial rule in 1947.

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