US orders non-essential staff out of consulate in Pakistan’s Lahore

The United States has evacuated all non-emergency staff from its consulate in the Pakistani city of Lahore, citing “specific threats” amid a worldwide alert over al-Qaeda intercepts.

The US State Department also reiterated a longstanding warning to US citizens to avoid all non-essential travel to Pakistan, in a statement issued late on Thursday Washington time.

The move came as Pakistan’s troubled southwestern city of Quetta, focus of a surge in sectarian bloodshed, was hit by its second attack in two days as gunmen shot dead at least nine people outside a mosque on Friday.

The worshippers were gunned down as they left prayers for Eid ul-Fitr, the festival marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which was marred in Pakistan this year by at least 11 attacks which killed 120 people.

A suicide bomber struck at a police funeral in the city on Thursday, killing 38 people in an attack claimed by the Taliban that will raise yet more concerns about the violence that has continued unabated since the newly-elected government took office.