U.S. Withdraws Staff from Pakistan Consulate
U.S. withdrew its staff from the consulate from Pakistan Friday. The Lahore consulate was reportedly pulled due terrorist threats. It was also advised to all Americans not to travel to Pakistan because violence continued in the country even in the holy month of Ramadan. The festival of Eid-Al-Fitr was not enough to show any restraint.
As Obama administration told NY Times, the drawdown was ordered due to explicit threats in the Lahore consulate. It is yet to be confirmed if the terrorist threats are directly related to any broader terror prospect. The State Department are supposed to shut down 19 diplomatic assignments in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Bombers attacked one funeral in the western part of Pakistan and also one graveyard across Afghanistan border. It left about 44 people brutally murdered on one among the holiest days according to the Islamic calendar.
Those two incidents were majorly responsible for the withdrawal as well as the warning regarding travelling to Pakistan. There are several terrorist groups present in the country, which have indigenous and foreign background. These groups are potentially dangerous for any U.S. citizen staying in the country.
The Thursday violence at Quetta, which is situated in the western part of Pakistan's Baluchistan Province, killed about 30 people. The unfortunate incident involved suicide bombing which took place during the funeral ceremony of one policeman. The policeman was killed just a few hours before.
Around 21 officers were among the people who got killed at Quetta. It was a devastation and chaos as described by local reporters. Fayyaz Sumbal, a deputy chief, was among the murdered policemen.
The other incident happened in at a Nangarhar graveyard. People gathered there for paying homage to a relative who had been killed earlier. 14 children and women got killed from a single family.
Pakistani Taliban took the responsibility for the attack at Quetta. The spokesman of the group, Shahidullah Shahid, claimed that the group had plans to kill more policemen in future.