Islamabad, May 3 -- A day after American special forces killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden near the garrison city of Abbottabad here, the US today closed its Embassy and Consulates in Pakistan to the public until further notice.
"The US Embassy in Islamabad and the Consulates in Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi are closed for routine business to the public until further notice," Embassy Spokesman Alberto Rodriguez said.
Routine business includes matters like issuance of visas. The Embassy and Consulates will remain open for "other business and for emergency American citizen services," he added.
The move came amid fears of reprisals by Pakistani Taliban and Al-Qaeda for the killing of Osama bin Laden, who was said to be hiding out in a compound located a few hundred metres from the Pakistan Military Academy.
Meanwhile, Pakistani television stations yesterday withdrew an image broadcast of the purported body of Osama after his killing, saying the picture was a fake. Several private channels showed what they called an "unverified" picture of Osama's bloodied face after the United States said he had been killed.
"It was a fake picture, it was on the Internet in 2009," Rana Jawad, Islamabad Bureau Chief of Geo television, said. "When we checked we found it was fake and we pulled it out," he said.
Pak channels earlier showed the image of a face sporting a bushy and black beard with less of the white or grey hair detected in the most recent video footage of Osama when he was alive. There were extensive blood stains on the forehead and left temple.
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