The US Embassy and British High Commission in Pakistan have issued notifications shortly before Christmas and New Year celebrations advising staff not to attend the Marriott and other hotels in Islamabad amid threats of a terror strike. The notifications urged personnel of diplomatic missions not to visit in Pakistan’s capital city for personal or unauthorised reasons.
The US government is ‘aware of information that unknown persons are likely preparing to assault Americans at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad sometime over the holidays,’ according to a notification posted on the Embassy website. The notification further stated that no American employees of the Embassy may enter the hotel and that Islamabad has been put on ‘red alert’ owing to security concerns. It advised mission workers to forego any unnecessary, unauthorised travel over the holiday season in the city.
Additionally, the UK government issued a security warning that forbade members of the High Commission from going to the Marriot in Islamabad. Additionally, it issued a warning against its employees and nationals travelling to certain regions of Balochistan and the North Western regions. A favourite hangout for diplomats and affluent Pakistanis alike is the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, which is a branch of a US-based brand. 53 people were killed at the hotel in September 2008 in a suicide attack that was clearly the work of al-Qaeda or one of its affiliates.
The warnings come in response to the suicide assault on Friday in Islamabad, where suspected Pakistani terrorists who were about to carry out a suicide bombing in the government area blew themselves up instead. According to officials, one cop died in the assault. Without providing any information, the interior ministry said that the car was on its way to a valuable target in the capital, and prime minister Shehbaz Sharif claimed that prompt police action prevented a ‘bloodbath’.
A major road leading to a government district with the parliament and offices of top officials was the site of the automobile explosion close to police headquarters. As retaliation for the murder of one of its commanders, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the vehicle bombing. The terrorist organisation Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which unites sectarian and Sunni Islamist organisations, issued a statement saying, ‘We accept responsibility for the suicide assault against the enemy of Islam’.
TTP terrorists have been carrying out bombings and suicide assaults for more than ten years in an effort to impose a strict version of Islamic rule on the nation. After calling off a truce mediated by the Afghan Taliban in May, they increased attacks last month. Periodically, Pakistan’s military has undertaken offensives in areas along the Afghan border where jihadist insurgents have found refuge.
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