Fear and panic gripped the staffers of the country’s largest circulated newspaper Jang, as the Aga Khan Hospital’s laboratory report confirmed that the suspicious-looking powder one of its reporters received in the mail was, indeed, anthrax spores.

            Dozens of reporters and editors abandoned the newsrooms, and the management sought the services of Aga Khan hospital’s microbiologists, to seal and disinfect the premises.

            The anthrax-laced letter from a social welfare organisation arrived at the Jang offices on October 23.  As the concerned reporter opened the envelope for a possible press release, the powder fell on the table.  The management sent the powder to the Aga Khan lab while the staff continued to work in the newsrooms till November 1.

            Since the test results proved positive, at least 80 journalists and newspaper employees of Jang have been put on a mandatory dose of antibiotics for 60 days.

            The group receives at least 1000 letters daily.  Following the incident, the Jang management has introduced a system whereby guards (wearing gloves and masks) check every letter and parcel that arrives in the mail before it is forwarded.

            Even so, there is massive fear among hundreds of employees who work with the Jang group.  “I’m afraid to handle any mail.  It’s scary,” says Mohammad Yaqoob, an employee of the group.

            This is the second known case of anthrax in Karachi.  The first target was a foreign bank in Karachi, whose entire 250-member staff has been put on a 60-day antibiotic treatment.

            Senior health ministry officials claim to have detected three cases of anthrax so far, all of them in Karachi.  The third organisation to be hit by anthrax is a computer firm.

            All foreign banks and multinational companies in the country have taken extraordinary precautions to prevent any contamination of their premises.  The Habib Bank AG Zurich, which was the first to receive anthrax spores, has now rerouted all the mail of its four branches to the headoffice, where a person equipped properly with gloves and mask scans each packet before it is dispatched to the various branches.

            “We are receiving telephone calls daily from people desperately wanting to know what to do if they come across any suspicious-looking material that arrives in the mail and we are referring them to the health ministry,” says a volunteer of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee in Karachi.

            Incidentally the Jang group has received two other letters, at its Quetta and London offices.   The letter addressed to the Quetta office stated: “A special gift of anthrax for you and your staff.”   However the powder contained both in this and the letter sent to the London office tested negative.

            According to an unconfirmed report, another foreign bank in Karachi has also received anthrax-contaminated mail sometime last week and one of its executives is said to be under treatment.  Further, that its employees have been receiving telephone calls daily from unidentified callers threatening to send anthrax spores in the mail.

            Reportedly the Aga Khan Hospital has designated a separate lab to test the samples suspected of being contaminated. Officially, the AKUH hospital refuses to divulge the number of samples they have received so far and how many of them have tested positive.  However, a doctor at the hospital, on condition of anonymity, told Dawn that they did receive some samples.

           At the city’s main international mail office, postal workers have been provided with gloves and masks only.  The office does not have any screening machine.  The workers fear that they might be unable to stop anthrax-infected mail and consequently the public should be careful while opening their mail.

          As the city attempts to come to grips with a relatively alien concept, there is confusion in the ranks of the police as to who should register the case and how.  The matter now rests with the legal branch of the police.

          Senior police officials maintain that the culprits behind the anthrax-laced letters to organisations in Pakistan could be those who are angered by the fact that the Pakistan government is supporting the US air-strikes against Afghanistan. Who they are, is still a big question mark.

          Incidentally, while some arrests have been made in the Jang case, the anthrax-mystery clearly remains unresolved.