Osama bin Laden dead: US closes its consulates in Peshawar and Lahore

ISLAMABAD: US today closed its consulates in the Pakistani cities of Peshawar and Lahore to the general public until further notice, a day after American special forces killed Al-qaida chief Osama bin Laden in a daring raid near the garrison city of Abbottabad.

The US Embassy in Islamabad and the consulate in the southern port city of Karachi, which too were closed to the public earlier in the day, had been reopened, Embassy spokesman Alberto Rodriguez said.

"The US Consulates in Lahore and Peshawar remain closed to the general public for routine business, except for emergency American Citizen Services," he said.

The move came amid fears of reprisals by the Pakistani Taliban and Al-qaida for the killing of bin Laden, who was hiding out in a compound located a few hundred metres from the Pakistan Military Academy.