Lahore, 3 Shawwal 1434/9 August 2013 (MINA) – The US government has ordered all non-essential staff to leave its consulate in Pakistan’s Lahore after receiving threats of attack, with the State Department also warning US citizens not to travel to the South Asian country.
Friday’s announcement came as Pakistani police said assailants killed at least 10 people after opening fire outside a mosque on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Quetta.
“Staff have been moved to Islamabad where the US maintains a large embassy,” said Al Jazeera’s Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from the capital as quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA). “That’s a sign that the US doesn’t plan to shut down this [Lahore] consulate permanently.”
The personnel drawdown at the Lahore consulate was precautionary and unrelated to the recent closures of numerous US diplomatic missions in the Muslim world, two US officials told the Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the order.
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The decision comes as Pakistan celebrates the festival of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, and a day after a suicide bomber killed 37 people at a police funeral, also in Quetta.
‘Credible threat’
A senior State Department official said in a statement: “We are undertaking this drawdown due to concerns about credible threat information specific to the US consulate in Lahore.”
US embassy officials said there was a “specific threat” to the consulate in Lahore and they did not know when the embassy would reopen.
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“Threat reporting indicates ‘terrorist’ groups continue to seek opportunities to attack locations where US citizens and Westerners are known to congregate or visit,” the State Department wrote on its website.
Friday’s measure comes two days after the evacuation of staff from the US embassy in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and a recommendation to US citizens there to leave.
The US shut nearly two dozen missions across the Middle East after a worldwide alert to its citizens last week, warning that al-Qaeda may be planning attacks, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa.
The Lahore warning noted that “several foreign and indigenous terrorist groups pose a potential danger to US citizens throughout Pakistan”.
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There have been at least 11 attacks that have killed more than 90 people during Ramadan in Pakistan. (T/P09/E1).
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).
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