PESHAWAR, 29 March 2006 — The United States has temporarily closed its consulate in Peshawar due to security reasons. The US Embassy said in Islamabad yesterday the consulate was shut down after the mission received a threat.

“They received a specific and credible threat,” embassy spokeswoman Nida Emmons told Reuters in Islamabad, without elaborating on the nature of the threat at the mission in the capital of North West Frontier Province.

Emmons said the consulate had been closed “until further notice”, while US and Pakistani authorities coordinated on security measures. “They may have received bomb threats, but the threat was not so great for them to take such a drastic step,” said Malik Zafar Azam, a law minister in the provincial government.

Azam suspected the mission’s closure could possibly have been ordered in anticipation of some action by the United States that could provoke a backlash. “There is something suspicious going on. Something they do not want to tell the public. We feel it is an indication of some big danger ... We are looking into this carefully,” he said.

Meanwhile, a bomb killed a policeman and injured 16 civilians in Peshawar yesterday, officials said, hours after the US Consulate closed down.

The time-bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded in the crowded Khyber Bazaar in central Peshawar, city police chief Habibur Rahman told AFP. “It was a time-bomb which exploded when the market was full of customers,” Rahman said. “One policeman who was passing by was killed and 16 other people were hurt.”

“There is a possibility that the terrorists wanted to strike at a different place but because of the tight security they detonated the device in the bazaar.”

A number of demonstrations have been staged near the US Consulate in Peshawar recently. There were unconfirmed reports that unknown militant groups had threatened to blow up the consulate.

American staffers posted at the consulate have reportedly vacated the building.

In another development, Foreign Office spokesperson confirmed yesterday that Richard Boucher, US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs, will be in Islamabad from April 4 to April 6.

He will be visiting Pakistan as part of ongoing consultations between the two countries.