'Parcel sent to Pak PM Secretariat in Oct 2011 contained anthrax'

Islamabad, Feb 2 (ANI): A small parcel sent to the Pakistan Prime Minister's Secretariat in October last year contained anthrax, the PM's House has revealed.

The Daily Times quoted Akram Shaheedi, a spokesman for Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, as saying that a female professor allegedly sent the substance from Jamshoro University Campus Colony post office.

Shaheedi said the laboratories of the Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Islamabad confirmed that the substance in the packet was anthrax.

Hakim Khan, station house officer of the Secretariat Police, also confirmed the report, saying a case has been registered against unidentified people under Section 270 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

A senior police official said that the packet, filled with a suspicious powder, was received by a security official at the main gate of the secretariat and sent to the PCSIR laboratories for test.

"The PCSIR report confirmed that the packet was filled with anthrax, which could also contain silica or other sophisticated additives to make it float more easily in the air," the police official added. (ANI)