Global Security Newswire

Pakistani security officials have ordered that all mail intended for the chief minister and governor of a regional northwest province be examined for anthrax, Central Asia Online reported on Friday (see GSN, Feb. 6).

Personnel at the officials' residences in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province have been told to be on the alert for parcels containing the bacteria, according to the Mashriq newspaper.

High-ranking Khyber officials have been ordered to turn down offerings such as perfume and other bottled liquids as the containers might have been compromised by extremists.

In October, an unknown individual sent a parcel containing a suspicious powder to the official residence of Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Initial laboratory analysis identified the substance as anthrax, but some Pakistani officials are reportedly calling for the material to be retested.

The lethal disease agent was most famously mailed to U.S. government and media offices in 2001. Five people died following exposure to the tainted mailings (Javed Aziz  Khan, Central Asia Online, Feb. 3).