WASHINGTON, June 22: US diplomats in Pakistan are facing “deliberate, wilful and systematic” harassment at the hands of the Pakistani government, says an internal State Department report released on Friday.

The report claimed that interference by Pakistani officials reached “new levels of intensity” in 2011.

The report identified the US raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound and a Nato air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers as “turning points” in the treatment meted out to their diplomats in Pakistan.

The State Department complained that American officials in Pakistan had long been subjected to “unusual” obstructions.

The obstruction included delayed visa issuances, blocked shipments for both assistance programmes and construction projects, and surveillance of, and interference with, mission employees and contractors.

The department, however, blacked out details of this harassment along with several recommendations to rectify the situation.