Pakistan: After terror threat, US consulate in Lahore closes
A specific threat prompted a move of US personnel to Islamabad. The Pakistani government is also on high alert.
A specific threat prompted a move of US personnel to Islamabad. The Pakistani government is also on high alert.
鈥� A daily summary of global reports on security issues.
The State Department closed the US consulate in Lahore, Pakistan, today and moved all non-essential personnel to the embassy in Islamabad because of a specific threat to the consulate amid a spate of extremist attacks against Pakistani targets across the country.
鈥淲e received information regarding a threat to the consulate,鈥澛燯S Embassy spokeswoman聽Meghan Gregonis said, according to The Wall Street Journal.聽鈥淎s a precautionary measure, we are undertaking a drawdown of all but essential personnel in Lahore."
The consulate was already closed yesterday through Sunday for Eid al-Fitr, a festive holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. But the consulate will not reopen on Monday and there is no date set for it to reopen, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The move was unrelated to the closure of 19 US diplomatic posts throughout the Middle East and Africa in the last week. The US has also issued a travel alert for the country, saying that various groups in Pakistan posed a threat to American citizens there.
US diplomatic posts in Pakistan have been targeted before, the Los Angeles Times notes, most recently the consulate in Peshawar, in northwestern Pakistan. A car bomb and grenade attack killed four Pakistanis there in 2010.
The Pakistani government is also on high alert after receiving intelligence that militants had plans to attack key locations in the city, such as the airport and parliament building, according to the Times.
According to Pakistani newspaper Dawn, a major suicide bombing in an Islamabad mosque was thwarted today when the bomber was gunned down before he could enter the mosque and detonate his vest of explosives.
The Wall Street Journal notes that there has been a "wave of extremist violence" in Pakistan. Many of the local groups are linked to Al Qaeda and oppose the Pakistani government's alliance with the US, but the "vast majority" of their victims are fellow Pakistanis, not Americans.聽
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack in Quetta, saying it was revenge for a police raid on an allied group.
The violence has "rattled" Mr. Sharif's government, reports The New York Times. The prime minister ordered his interior minister to visit Quetta and pushed him to present the national counterterrorism strategy soon.
鈥淭he government cannot leave the country to be a playing-field of terrorists. We will be handling them with an iron fist,鈥� Mr. Sharif said, according to the Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune.
The latest wave of violence has caused some Pakistanis to despair,聽particularly amid the backdrop of the holy month of Ramadan, as articulated in an editorial in the Pakistani newspaper the Nation titled "A difficult Eid":聽