The United States on Wednesday placed Afghanistan on “Level 4” and Pakistan on “Level 3” in its new travel advisory what officials described as ‘based on ready to understand level of advice ranging from one to four.’
For instance, India is ranked Level 2 (exercise increased caution) and Pakistan has been given Level 3 (reconsider travel). Level one is for ‘exercising normal precaution’. Level 4 says “Do Not Travel”.
Now every country has a travel advisory based on this system, replacing all previous travel advisories. “These improvements will provide US citizens with clear, timely, and reliable safety and security information worldwide,” the State Department said.
The State Department explained it would issue an overall travel advisory level for every country, but levels of advice might vary for specific locations or areas within a country.
“Do not travel to Afghanistan due to crime, terrorism, civil unrest, and armed conflict,” the State Department said.
“Travel to all areas of Afghanistan is unsafe because of high levels of kidnappings, hostage taking, suicide bombings, widespread military combat operations, landmines, terrorist and insurgent attacks, including attacks using vehicle-borne or other improvised explosive devices (IEDs), it said.
Attacks have targeted official Afghan and US government convoys and compounds, foreign embassies, military installations, commercial entities, non-governmental organization (NGO) offices, hospitals, places of worship, restaurants, hotels, airports, and education centers, the advisory said.
The advisory said terrorist groups continued plotting possible attacks in Afghanistan… with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs….and local government facilities.
Ranking Pakistan on Level 3, the State Department asked Americans to reconsider travel to this country due to terrorism.
It advises Americans not to travel to travel to Balochistan province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province, and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) due to terrorism