Pak declares Islamabad 'extremely dangerous', alerts all embassies: report

Pakistan has declared its capital Islamabad as "extremely dangerous" because of the presence of sleeper cells of banned terror groups, including al-Qaida, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Jahngvi (LeJ) and has alerted embassies of various countries of the lurking danger.

A Geo News report on Wednesday said Pakistan's interior ministry prepared the report, which dubbed the capital 'extremely dangerous'. However, sources in the interior ministry denied any such report.

Banned outfits of Pakistani Taliban and LeJ are a real threat in Punjab while the target killers, al-Qaida and LeJ are targeting Sindh, Geo TV reported.

The interior ministry report will be presented before the standing committee of National Assembly, it added.

It may be noted that the Islamabad police claim to have busted a number of sleeper cells in the Pakistani capital besides seizure of large amount of explosives and arms over the past six months.

Islamabad was also recently put on high alert for nearly a week after a suicide bomb blast in Rawalpindi last month.

The chief financier of the dreaded Haqqani militant group fighting US-led forces in Afghanistan, Nasiruddin Haqqani, was shot dead in the Pakistani capital in November last year.

The report said heavy security checks were introduced while alerts were sent out to all embassies and high commissions here which in turn have warned their citizens to avoid a number of places in the capital.

The Geo News report said arms and terrorists were making their way into the country through both the eastern and western borders leading to cross border terrorism in Pakistan while Balochistan and Azad Kashmir were "plagued by terrorism sponsored by India."

Diplomatic sources said such an alert was rare for any country.