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Uk pakistan { May 22 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,2763,720101,00.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,2763,720101,00.html
British diplomats to pull out of Pakistan
· 150 diplomatic staff to leave
· Bomb threats to British embassy
· Visa operations for Pakistan suspended
Mark Oliver and agencies
Wednesday May 22, 2002
More than 160 British diplomatic staff are to be pulled out from Pakistan following several terrorist bomb threats from Islamist militants, it emerged today.
As tensions between Pakistan and India escalate, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said today that many UK diplomats, their staff and families would prepare to leave Pakistan immediately. Around 90 diplomatic personnel will remain.
Other Britons are being advised to consider leaving and only those with a compelling reason should travel to the country, Mr Straw said. The decision comes ahead of his visit to the region next week aimed at reducing tensions with neighbouring India.
However, the Foreign Office said Mr Straw's announcement was not "directly" linked to the threat of war between the nuclear powers. All British visa operations are now closed in Pakistan for the immediate future.
Mr Straw said in a statement: "The security threat to British interests in Pakistan has led me to take the difficult decision to reduce . . . diplomatic representation there."
He added: "We are now advising against all but essential travel to Pakistan and then only where there is a compelling reason and where security is assured."
The numbers of diplomats, staff and dependants attached to the British high commission in the capital Islamabad will be cut from around 210 to about 80. The deputy high commission in Karachi will see a cut from 36 to 10, while the office in Lahore, which currently has about 10 Britons attached to it, will close.
The level of threat against their security has been carefully monitored since September 11.
At least 15 foreigners have been killed in Pakistan and dozens wounded in violent attacks since January, the targets of Islamic radicals opposed to the US "war on terror" following the September 11 attacks on the United States and moves by Pakistan's military regime to crack down on militants.
The most recent attack on foreigners was a suicide bombing earlier in May in the volatile southern city of Karachi that killed 14 people, 11 of them French naval engineers. That attack followed the kidnap in Karachi in January and subsequent murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl.
Most foreigners evacuated the country in September, although many returned by December or January.
Mr Straw said: "We will do all we can to continue to offer a full consular service for British nationals who need our assistance and we are briefing UK nationals based in Pakistan through our warden network.
"Visa services will inevitably be reduced. We will be able to offer a strictly limited Visa service for the whole of Pakistan from our high commission in Islamabad for settlement, returning residents and urgent compassionate medical cases only. For the immediate future we will not be able to process any visitor applications.
"However, UK visas are urgently examining a limited service for family visitors and other categories . . . this will take a little time to implement but we will make an announcement as soon as possible."
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