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 that at least three 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 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 had probably also 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. A diplomat at one of the embassies said the accompanying hand-written letter was in broken English and threatened to avenge militants killed in Afghanistan by poisoning food supplies in the convoys.
"We received a letter containing greyish powder in a sealed plastic sachet, which we didn't open," the diplomat told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. There was no risk of anyone being contaminated as the powder did not get out of the sealed bag, the diplomat said, adding that it had been sent to police for analysis.
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