The US Embassy in Pakistan issued a safety purple alert and barred US authorities staff from visiting the Marriot Hotel Islamabad.
In the Alert issued Sunday night time, US Embassy employees in Pakistan additionally have been ordered to chorus from non-essential journey. The alert is in impact for your entire nation, in keeping with the embassy.
“The US government is aware of information that unknown individuals are possibly plotting to attack Americans at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad sometime during the holidays. Effective immediately, the Embassy in Islamabad is prohibiting all American staff from visiting Islamabad’s Marriott Hotel. Furthermore, as Islamabad has been placed on a Red Alert citing security concerns while banning all public gatherings, the embassy is urging all mission personnel to refrain from non-essential, unofficial travel in Islamabad throughout the holiday season,” the embassy mentioned in an announcement.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) additionally issued a journey advisory barring its officers from visiting Islamabad’s Marriott Hotel citing a “possible attack.”
During the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the Marriott Hotel Islamabad was maybe probably the most protected lodge on the planet. It is believed that the lodge had housed US and NATO forces and subsequently had a extremely educated safety employees and state-of-the-art safety system in place.
In September 2008, a truck full of heavy explosives and chemical compounds exploded within the courtyard of the lodge after it rammed via the gates of the lodge. At least 54 folks have been killed and 266 have been injured within the incident.
Two US navy officers who labored for the US Embassy in Islamabad have been amongst these killed within the 2008 assault; additionally killed have been the Czech Republic’s ambassador to Pakistan, Ivo Zdarek, alongside along with his Vietnamese counterpart.
Because of the attainable terror assault, the federal capital administration on Friday banned all kinds of gatherings for 2 weeks and declared a state of excessive alert all through the town.
Intelligence companies even have warned in regards to the presence of one other suicide bomber within the twin cities metropolitan space of Rawalpindi-Islamabad, in keeping with sources.
The warning comes days after the Pakistan Army elite strike forces on December 20 killed at the very least 25 armed militia members from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – also referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, who seized the counter-terrorism interrogation middle in Bannu district, in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on the border with Afghanistan. The TTP operatives took as hostages the employees of the counter-terrorism middle and demanded a protected airlift to Afghanistan together with their imprisoned members in return for the discharge of the jail employees.
On Friday, a policeman was killed in a suicide blast in Islamabad, that additionally critically injured 4 cops and two civilians. The assault got here after Islamabad police stopped a suspicious taxi, wherein a person with lengthy hair and a lady have been using. During the search, the person blew himself up.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in aggressive violence in current weeks after the banned TTP in November introduced the tip to its truce with the federal government.
Reliable sources primarily based in Islamabad instructed The Media Line that “at the request of the Afghan Taliban, the series of backdoor contacts between the Pakistani authorities and the banned outfit began in October 2021; however, in this context, some officials, including well-known Islamic clerics and tribal elders, also met several times with the leaders of the banned outfit in Kabul. In these talks, it was agreed that security forces and civilians would not be targeted, while jailed hard-core members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban would be released.”
In September, TTP spokesperson Muhammad Khorasani claimed that “due to the non-release of prisoners, continued military operations and lack of communication from the government of Pakistan compelled us to end the cease-fire.”
Since the tip of the cease-fire, there was a spike in cross-border terror assaults. Dozens of safety officers and civilians have been killed and injured thus far. At the identical time, the Pakistan Army and Air Force have efficiently focused the hideouts of terrorists.
According to a Pakistan Armed Forces information convention on Sunday, 5 troopers, together with a captain, have been killed when an improvised explosive gadget detonated in Balochistan’s Kahan space.
“Troops were conducting an intelligence-based clearance operation in the Kahan area when the IED exploded close to the leading party,” in keeping with the navy.
Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a banned militant outfit, claimed duty for the assault on the troops.
Meanwhile, quite a few blasts rocked a number of elements of Quetta in northern Balochistan close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and different elements of Balochistan on Sunday.
Quetta native media reported that at the very least two folks have been killed and 20 have been injured in these blasts.
In addition, 5 folks, together with three policemen, have been injured when gunmen attacked a police automobile in Quetta’s Satellite Town space on Sunday night.