<

Britain Recalls Pakistan Diplomats
Wednesday, May 22, 2002
(18.11PM BST)
ITV Network

The Deputy High Commission, or consulate, in Lahore closed because of a "serious bomb threat," and authorities in Karachi advised that Britain shut the visa section of its consulate there because of another serious threat, Straw said in a letter to MPs.

Britain has recalled some of its diplomats from Pakistan and is urging citizens to avoid travelling there, due to terrorist threats made against two British consulates.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who plans to visit South Asia to try to ease tensions between India and Pakistan, said the diplomats, embassy and consulate staff and their families would leave Pakistan immediately.

Other Britons living in Pakistan also are being advised to consider leaving, Straw said. He added that the Foreign Office was advising against all but essential travel to Pakistan, and said that even then there should be a compelling reason to go and a guarantee of security.

Straw declined to say who might be behind the threats, but stressed recent attacks that have killed Americans and French nationals in Pakistan.

Like the United States, Britain has been the target of hostility from Muslim extremists in Pakistan for sending forces to neighbouring Afghanistan to drive out the Taleban government and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda fighters.
(More: ITV Online News Source)
2002 © ITV Network Limited.

Dan