Pakistan's government appeared in confusion today about reported anthrax attacks, with President Pervez Musharraf confirming two incidents but seemingly unaware an official statement had already expressed doubts.
"I'm told there was exposure but no infection - two confirmed exposures", Mr Musharraf told reporters in answer to a question, but emphasising that he had not dealt with the controversy.
"Let me tell you, with so many problems we don't consider it such a serious problem as it is considered maybe in the United States. I haven't gone into the details", he said at a brief news conference called to discuss Afghan refugee policy.
He had turned for guidance to chief government spokesman Major-General Rashid Qureshi, who was repeating his comments from yesterday in which he also said there were two reports of anthrax exposure.
Qureshi again said one of the confirmed cases was the Daily Jang - contradicting a formal government statement issued last night expressing scepticism about an anthrax attack on the Karachi-based Urdu-language newspaper.
The government statement had said previous reports of anthrax attacks - which included letters received by the British and US embassies - had proved to be hoaxes.
"Health authorities have also suspicion regarding authenticity of this (Jang) case as it is felt that sufficient expertise is not available at the local hospital to confirm the contents of the report", it said.
It ordered health authorities to collect samples of the white powder seen in a letter hand-delivered to Jang and run their own tests. It takes at least three days to get a result.