Threats sent to embassies in Pakistan

Several Western embassies in Islamabad received letters on Wednesday containing suspicious powder and threats to poison supplies for NATO soldiers in Afghanistan, officials said.

Islamabad police chief Bani Amin told AFP the embassies had received small packets containing black powder, which had been sent for laboratory analysis.

The letters said the powder was a sample of “poison” that would be hidden in NATO supplies if Pakistan lifts a nearly six-month blockade on convoys carrying supplies for troops fighting the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Senior Pakistani security officials told AFP that the French embassy and the Australian and British High Commissions had received suspicious packages for certain, and other diplomatic missions may also have been targeted.

“Embassies have received one sachet each. The problem is that it is in a meagre quantity and difficult even to test. It seems somebody has committed some mischief. We are sending it to a laboratory,” Amin told AFP. (AFP)