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U.S. Pulls Staff From Pakistan Consulate as Violence Continues
High Alert in Pakistan After Threats to Military Sites
(about 5 hours later)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The United States ordered staff members pulled from its consulate in Lahore, Pakistan, on Friday, citing terrorist threats, and also advised Americans against traveling to Pakistan as violence continued to rattle the country for another day.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Security forces in Islamabad were on high alert for a possible militant attack on Friday following threats against major military installations, the police said. The heightened security alert came hours after American officials evacuated the consulate in Lahore, Pakistan, also on security fears.
“The Department of State ordered this drawdown due to specific threats concerning the U.S. Consulate in Lahore,” the warning said. Except for a small number of emergency personnel, the diplomats in Lahore were moved to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, a senior Obama administration official said.
The police said 2,500 officers had been deployed across Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, following intelligence intercepts indicating that militants were planning to attack the headquarters of the Pakistan Air Force and Navy.
At this point, it does not appear that the threat against the consulate is related to a broader terrorism alert that prompted the State Department to close 19 diplomatic missions in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, the official said.
Private security guards killed a suicide bomber as he tried to force his way into a Shiite mosque on the edge of the capital, in what appeared to be the latest in a series of sectarian attacks across Pakistan.
The withdrawal of personnel and the travel warning came a day after bombers struck a funeral in western Pakistan and a graveyard across the border in Afghanistan, leaving at least 44 people dead. The attack occurred on the first day of Id al-Fitr, one of the holiest days on the Muslim calendar, marking the end of the month of Ramadan.
Earlier in the week, military commandos patrolled in Margalla Hills, a low chain of hills that overlooks Islamabad and is considered one of the city’s most vulnerable security points.
In its warning against travel to Pakistan, the State Department cited the continuing threat posed by terrorist violence in the country.
“Government buildings are under threat but we also have information that terrorists can also strike at a public place,” said a senior police official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“The presence of several foreign and indigenous terrorist groups poses a potential danger to U.S. citizens throughout Pakistan,” read the advisory.
Meghan Gregonis, a spokeswoman for the American Embassy in Islamabad, said all but essential staff members had been evacuated from the Lahore consulate.
The heaviest toll in Thursday’s violence was inflicted in the Pakistani city of Quetta, in western Baluchistan Province, where at least 30 people died in a suicide attack at the funeral of a police officer who had been killed just hours earlier.
“It was a precautionary measure,” she said in a telephone interview. “We received specific information regarding the consulate.” She declined to specify the nature of the threat. In Washington, Obama administration officials said it was not linked to the Qaeda threat that has caused the closure of 19 diplomatic missions across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
At the eastern end of the border, in the Afghan province of Nangarhar, a bomb exploded at a graveyard where people had gathered to pay their respects to a slain relative. Fourteen women and children from the same family were killed.
Lahore is the cultural capital of Pakistan and the home city of the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. It has been targeted by militant groups several times in recent years, with attacks on police facilities, intelligence offices, and sporting and cultural events.
Reporters in Quetta described scenes of chaos and devastation after the attack on the police funeral. At least 21 officers were among the 30 killed, including a deputy chief in charge of field operations, Fayyaz Ahmed Sumbal.
But the city is also home to militant groups that operate in plain view, like Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was responsible for terror attacks in 2008 in Mumbai, India, and whose leader, Hafiz Saeed, lives in a Lahore neighborhood under police protection.
Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, said the Taliban was responsible for the Quetta attack and the group would continue to target police officials, according to local news media outlets.
The other two American consulates in Pakistan, in Karachi and Peshawar, have not been affected by the security threats. In any event, all American diplomatic missions in Pakistan would have been closed until Monday because of the annual Id al-Fitr religious holiday, which marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramandan.
On Friday, violence continued to wrack Quetta, where at least 10 people were killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire on people coming out of a mosque after offering prayers, rescue workers said. A vicious wave of violence in recent weeks has cast a pall over the country.
But, Ms. Gregonis said, while most American offices are expected to reopen on Monday, it is not clear when the Lahore consulate will return to normal.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Friday and police officials speculated that a former provincial minister, who was inside the mosque but was unharmed, was the target of the shooting.
A similar situation occurred in September 2012, when violent riots erupted in Lahore to protest a video clip that insulted the Prophet Muhammad that had been produced in the United States. The protests forced the temporary closure of the consulate and the transfer of staff members to Islamabad.
The violence has rattled the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who ordered Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to visit Quetta soon. Mr. Sharif also asked him to present the final draft of a much-awaited national counterterrorism strategy on Aug. 30.
Video footage of the attempted attack on the Shiite mosque in Islamabad, which was aired by a private television network, showed the suicide bomber approaching the mosque and exchanging fire with a security guard.
Critics say the lack of such a strategy has resulted in confusion and lack of consensus about how to deal with the terrorists.
The bomber tried to detonate his explosives-laden vest, but they failed to detonate and he was shot dead by the security guards, one of whom sustained serious injuries and later died in a hospital.
Opposition politicians urged the government to immediately convene a national conference of all political parties to come to a policy consensus. “The delay is causing more acts of terrorism,” said Syed Khurshid Shah, an opposition lawmaker from the Pakistan People’s Party.
Salman
Masood reported from Islamabad, and Declan Walsh from London.
The attack in Afghanistan occurred in the Ghanikhel district, near the border with Pakistan. The victims were visiting the grave of a relative, and provincial authorities said a bomb apparently planted on a grave exploded once the family gathered around it.
“My family is finished,” Hajji Ghalib, a relative of the victims, told The Associated Press. “These people are inhuman.”
Suspicion fell on the Taliban, who the United Nations says are responsible for the majority of civilian deaths in Afghanistan.
The 14 victims, seven women and seven children, had been visiting the grave of an elder who was assassinated by the Taliban earlier this year. President Hamid Karzai denounced the bombing as “a cowardly act by the enemies of the people of Afghanistan who are not part of any religion.”
Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, and Declan Walsh from London. Matthew Rosenberg contributed reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan; Khalid Alokozay from Jalalabad, Afghanistan; Eric Schmitt from Washington; and Gerry Mullany from Hong Kong.
