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U.S. Diplomatic Families and Non-Essential Staff Pulled Out of Pakistan
WASHINGTON, March 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. diplomats' families and non-essential staff were preparing to leave Pakistan Saturday on orders from Washington after a church attack in Islamabad killed a U.S. diplomat's wife and step-daughter.
The U.S. State Department "decided to move to an ordered departure of all dependents and non-emergency personnel" following a review of security in Pakistan after the March 17 attack, deputy spokesman Philip Reeker announced in Washington.
The diplomats' families were readying to leave, embassy officials in Islamabad said, but they refused to reveal when, how, or in what numbers, citing security concerns.
"The order has been conveyed and the families and non-essential staff are preparing to evacuate," one embassy official told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Their departure would most likely be staggered over several days, he said on condition of anonymity. "Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, they will start leaving," he said.
Embassy spokesman Mark Wentworth said, "those that have been ordered to leave are beginning to make the necessary arrangements."
Islamabad made no official comment on Washington's dramatic decision, but a senior interior ministry official defended Pakistan's stepped-up security arrangements for expatriates since the attack.
"It is their [U.S.] decision, but as far as we are concerned, we have taken all possible steps to ensure the security of all diplomats in Pakistan," the official told news agencies on the condition of anonymity.
The evacuation order is a step up from the State Department's decision Monday to "authorize" the voluntary departure of dependents and non-essential staff, one day after a man hurled several grenades into a church used by the U.S. and other diplomatic communities.
Five people, including possibly the attacker, were killed in the Sunday morning attack in Islamabad's otherwise quiet and tightly guarded diplomatic compound.
Another 46 other worshippers – including eight Pakistanis - were wounded.
The State Department issued the lower-level authorization of voluntary departures after the September 11 attacks on Washington and New York.
This was lifted on January 28 and virtually everyone returned, Wentworth said.
The evacuation order also comes within weeks of the abduction and murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, with which 11 Pakistanis were charged on Friday.
The families of several U.S. and European diplomats have already left Pakistan since the church attack.
But the move has concerned some western diplomats, who had gathered Saturday to discuss the evacuation order.
One diplomat criticized the U.S. move as an over-reaction that was sending the wrong signals to terror groups.
"What's more it flies in the face of President [George W. Bush's] pledge to not give into terrorism," he told AFP.
A European diplomat feared the U.S. departures would heighten the vulnerability of other diplomatic communities.
"We think the Americans were the first target. Now that the first target is leaving, we will become the target," he said.
The attack is viewed by some as part of an anti-western backlash by some Pakistanis, who are critical of President Pervez Musharraf's alliance with the U.S. in its war on terror.
Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned Musharraf to assure him that the move did not reflect a lack of confidence in Pakistan's ability to protect Americans, State Department spokesman Reeker said.
"We believe that the war against terrorism in Pakistan is far from over and that we will be able to carry it on with greater focus if our dependents are not present at U.S. facilities there," he said. "Pakistan itself has suffered from terrorism and understands this."
Musharraf is prized by Washington as a key ally in the war on terror and its military campaign in Afghanistan.
The U.S. embassy in Islamabad and consulates in Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi will remain open though they were closed for normal business for security reasons on Friday.
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