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Denmark closes embassy, Pakistan recalls envoy
 Denmark temporarily shut its embassy in Islamabad and Pakistan recalled its envoy from Copenhagen on Friday, as violent protests against caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) sparked a diplomatic row. Copenhagen said its embassy staff would remain in Pakistan, but not in the embassy and denied that diplomatic ties were affected. We decided on Friday to shut our embassy for security reasons, because we believe it is not responsible to keep it open at the moment, Lars Thuesen, head of the Danish Foreign Ministrys crisis centre, said. Diplomatic relations have not been severed.Denmark has consistently attracted the fury of the protesters in Pakistan and around the world, who have repeatedly burned effigies of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasumussen and torched and trampled on the countrys flag. It has already temporarily closed its embassies in Tehran, Damascus and Jakarta and its consulates in Beirut and Tunis. Pakistan cited the caricatures issue in its decision to recall its ambassador, but did not explicitly link it to the shutdown of the Danish mission. Pakistans ambassador in Copenhagen, Mr Javed A Qureshi, has been called to Islamabad for consultations over the caricatures controversy, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said. Government officials said the decision was made during a meeting between senior Pakistani Foreign Ministry officials and the Danish ambassador in Islamabad, Bent Wigotski, at the ministry on Friday. Posted by: Fred 2006-02-18 |
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