On 21 November 1979, Pakistani people, enraged by a radio report claiming that the United States had bombed the Masjid al-Haram, Islam's holy site at Mecca, stormed the U.S. embassy in Islamabad, and burned it to the ground. The Grand Mosque had suffered a terrorist attack, but the U.S. was not involved. The U.S. diplomats survived by hiding in a reinforced area. Marine Security Guard Corporal Steven Crowley, 20, Army Warrant Officer Bryan Ellis, 29, and two Pakistani staff members were killed in the attack.

Islamabad ( (listen); Urdu: اسلام آباد, romanized: Islām Ābād) is the capital city of Pakistan, and is administered by the Pakistani federal government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. It is the ninth-largest city in Pakistan, while the larger Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area is the country's third-largest with a population of about 4.1 million people. Built as a planned city in the 1960s, it replaced Rawalpindi as Pakistan's capital. Islamabad is noted for its high standards of living, safety, and abundant greenery.The master plan for the city was designed by Greek architect Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis and divides the city into eight zones, including administrative, diplomatic enclave, residential areas, educational and industrial sectors, commercial areas, as well as rural and green areas which are administered by the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation with support from the Capital Development Authority. Islamabad is known for the presence of several parks and forests, including the Margalla Hills National Park and the Shakarparian. It is home to several landmarks, with the most notable one being the Faisal Mosque, the largest mosque in South Asia and the fifth-largest in the world. Other landmarks include the Pakistan National Monument and the Democracy Square.Islamabad is a Gamma+ city as rated by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. It has the highest cost of living in Pakistan, and its populace is dominated by middle and upper middle class citizens.The city is home to twenty universities, including Bahria University, Quaid-e-Azam University, PIEAS, COMSATS University and NUST. The city is rated as one of the safest in Pakistan, and has an expansive RFID-enabled surveillance system with almost 2000 active CCTV cameras.