ISLAMABAD/KARACHI ��" The US Embassy in the capital and its Consulate in Karachi have received two separate envelopes containing unknown white powder on night between Thursday-Friday.

Confirming the reports, US Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said that tests were being conducted on the substance. But he declined any comment on whether or not any embassy staffers had become sick or were under observation.

Fintor said that the two outposts leading to the embassy would remain open and there was no plan to close them. He further said that a very small number of people had touched the envelopes, and that nobody was showing any signs of illness.

The mysterious event has sparked a security scare in the US Embassy. Officials also declined to comment on the origin of envelopes or to whom they were addressed.

It may be recalled that after 9/11 attacks, there had developed a worldwide panic of Anthrax envelopes ostensibly linked to Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussain’s

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) by the US government.

The envelopes of white powder in 2001 had inflamed a sense of fear and uncertainty across the world particularly in America. Those Anthrax virus polluted letters, usually carried, “Death to America! Death to Israel! Allah is great! slogans.

Meanwhile, the US authorities initiated a probe into the incident.

Talking to The Nation, Louis Fintor, a US embassy spokesman, confirmed that the American diplomatic outposts had received suspicious envelopes.

He said there were much better ties between Pakistan and the US but, he added, he could not comment on whether the Pakistani and Americans agencies were mutually investigating the matter or US was taking assistance form Pakistani authorities to probe that suspicious envelopes.