US Closes Karachi Consulate After Security Threat 

Huma Aamir Malik

Arab News

KARACHI, 13 April 2005 — The US Consulate in Karachi was closed yesterday after receiving a security threat.

Americans had also been told to avoid the area around the consulate, which was hit by a massive suicide bomb attack nearly three years ago, and the nearby Marriott hotel, a US official said.

“The consulate is closed today,” Greggory Crouch, press attache at the US Embassy in Islamabad, told AFP. “We have received credible information of a threat and that has heightened our security concern.”

The consulate was closed on the orders of Consul General Douglas Rohn, said Crouch. “It is my understanding that the staff were sent home,” he added. “We expect it will resume normal operations tomorrow.”

A staff member at the consulate in the southern port city, speaking on condition of anonymity, also confirmed it was closed for the day.

Police have closed all roads around the US Consulate and the road leading to the residence of the consul general.

In June 2002, a suicide car bomb blast outside the consulate killed 12 Pakistanis. Last year two successive car bombs near the consul general’s residence killed one policeman and injured more than a dozen press photographers.