Associated Press

Karachi, April 12:

The United States Consulate in this southern Pakistani city was closed today due to a security threat, US officials said. “We received information that increased our security concerns,” US embassy spokesman Greg Crouch said from Islamabad. He said the consulate would be closed only today, and was expected to reopen tomorrow. The consulate in Karachi issued a warning for American citizens not to visit the building or the nearby Marriott Hotel until further notice. It was not known who made the threat. Crouch declined to comment on the specifics of the threat. “We do not discuss the nature of security threats,” Crouch said.

Two senior Karachi police officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that an officer posted outside the diplomatic mission received a threat on his cell phone last night.

Additional police and paramilitary Rangers were deployed and the street near the building was blocked off, Karachi police chief Tariq Jamil said.

Karachi is Pakistan’s largest city and a hotbed of Islamic militancy. Militants have launched a string of attacks, including two against the US Consulate, in recent years. In June 2002, a suicide bombing near the US Consulate left 14 Pakistanis dead and in March last year police defused a huge bomb less than five minutes before it was timed to detonate outside the building. Islamic militants have been angered by the US-led war that ousted the Taliban from power in neighbouring Afghanistan in late 2001 for harbouring Al Qaeda. They are also opposed to President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s alliance with Washington in the anti-terrorism campaign.