ISLAMABAD, Nov 24: In the wake of attacks on HSBC bank in Turkey, and DHL transport aircraft in Iraq, Pakistan has warned all the locally-based commercial interests of the US and UK to take appropriate security measures.

“The provincial home departments would take appropriate measures to implement the directives of the federal government in this regard,” Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, director general National Crisis Management Cell, told Dawn.

According to the US embassy in Islamabad, the US government is “seeing increasing indications that Al Qaeda is preparing to strike US interests abroad.”

A caution issued by the US embassy said Al Qaeda and its associated organizations have struck in the Middle East and in Europe. “We therefore assess that other geographic locations could be venues for the next round of attacks.”

The caution issued by the US embassy said the terrorists are not distinguishing between official and civilian targets and may include “commercial aircraft and maritime interests.”

According to diplomats, a caution issued by the British government warned that “there is reliable evidence that terrorists are posing threats to western, including British, commercial targets and individuals throughout Pakistan.” Owing to high levels of security at Western embassies and international organisations, there may be an increased threat to more vulnerable targets, the British travel advisory for Pakistan said.

Sources in Pakistan’s interior ministry said the trend to target soft commercial targets was discernible from the recent terrorist attacks on DHL plane in Iraq and the HSBC in Turkey.

According to the British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Mark Lyall Grant, Britain was the largest foreign investor in Pakistan last year.