KARACHI, Sept 8: A hoax bomb call at the American consulate on Wednesday afternoon jolted law-enforcers and caused the closure of a busy artery for more than two hours, resulting in traffic jams.

An officer in the Bomb Disposal Squad said that 'Madadgar 15' had received the information about the presence of a bomb in the US consulate on Abdullah Haroon Road at 1:45pm. He said that an anonymous caller had told the officials at the consulate about the presence of a bomb which, according to the caller, would go off in minutes.

"We rushed towards the US consulate and started a search operation which continued for two hours," the BDS officer said. DIG Operations Fayyaz Leghari told Dawn that the police had closed a portion of Abdullah Haroon Road for two hours and it was reopened as soon as the BDS gave a green signal.

He said that the hoax bomb call would not affect the holding of book bazaar in Frere Hall, some 500 metres from the consulate, on Fatima Jinnah Road. He asserted: "The book bazaar will be held as usual on Sundays."

It may be recalled that the holding of the book bazaar had been suspended on May 29 following two bomb blasts, in a quick succession on May 26, in front of the Pak-American Cultural Centre. A policeman was killed in the incident.

The bazaar, however, was restored on Sept 5 following personal intervention by City Nazim Naimatullah Khan. Earlier, on Aug 24, 2003, the Sindh government had closed the Sunday book bazaar on a request by US consul-general. However, the city nazim had got it reopened after a gap of two weeks.

During the search operation on Wednesday, heavy deployment of police and Rangers was made outside the US consulate, which was cordoned off completely. Officials said that all the staff of the US consulate was asked to vacate the premises for a thorough search. The people were allowed to enter after the call proved to be a hoax.

According to police sources, the call was made from a PCO at Memon Manzil, near Cantonment railway station and it is run by Chaudhry Abdul Razzak and his employee, Shafaat. Both the men have been picked up to ascertain description of the anonymous caller.