The US embassy in Islamabad will close its doors and shut its consulates in Pakistan on Friday because of ongoing protests after the release of a CIA contractor accused of double murder. Small demonstrations have broken out across the country after American Raymond Davis, who shot dead two men in Lahore in January, was set free Wednesday after paying $2 million in blood money to the families of the dead.
"The US embassy and consulates will be closed for routine business tomorrow," embassy spokesman Alberto Rodriguez said on Thursday. The decision was made "for public safety at large because there may be demonstrations tomorrow". The biggest protest was in Lahore, where some 800 students rallied at Punjab University campus chanting anti-US slogans such as "Death to America".
Security was tightened at the US consulate in Lahore, with several roads near the building blocked with barbed wire and concrete slabs. The other US consulates are in Karachi and Peshawar. In Peshawar, police used teargas and beat back about 100 students trying to block a main road outside the city university, arresting nine students, senior police official Mohammad Ijaz told AFP. Some demonstrators threw stones while others burned an effigy of Davis. About 300 people also rallied in the central city of Multan and token protests were held in the capital Islamabad.
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