Islamabad Marriot Terrorist Bombing

[dr.umer]

...However to blame the US without any proof is a bit too much at this moment.

As a matter of fact US can't be blamed 'directly & fully' but it does get share of blame.

PA had informed US military stationed on the other side of border about location of terrorist Baitullah Masud (TTP leader) but US was least bothered to act.

PA had also informed US about foreign funding of militants by anti-Pakistan countries but US didn't take any steps to stop it.

...I dont feel RAW is involved.

Nothing can be ruled out at this stage. National interests doesn't always go parallel with the 'feelings'. When destabilization is the objective then all you need is right time, right place and right move.

 

[RescueRanger]

Dr.Umer was spot on, this smells all too fishy and the way the Foriegn advisor decided to change the venue for the dinner from marriott to PM house just smells a but off...

 

[Flintlock]

Dinner plans save Pakistan's rulers from hotel bomb attack
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's president, prime minister and other Cabinet members were supposed to have been at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad when a massive truck bomb detonated outside, killing 57 and injuring 266, Pakistan's head of the Interior Ministry Rehman Malik said Monday.

Malik said their planned dinner was changed at the last minute, although did not say how far in advance it had been planned.

The Speaker of the House, Fahmida Mirza, had planned the event for ministers, the president, their guests and various foreign dignitaries.

But at the last minute, President Asif Ali Zardari asked that the event be transferred to the Prime Minister's compound, Malik told reporters during a handover service for Czech Ambassador Ivo Zdarek, who died in the blast.

On Sunday Malik called the massive blast "the biggest attack, volume-wise" in Pakistan in seven years, based on the quantity -- 600kg -- and type of explosives used.

Two American military personnel who worked for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad were among those killed, the U.S. military said. A Lithuanian Pakistan was also among the fatalities, police superintendent Sheikh Zubair told CNN Sunday. The injured included 11 foreigners, Malik said.

No arrests have been made in connection with the attack. But Malik said suspicion is falling on militants in Pakistan's tribal regions.

"I am not in a position to tell you who has done it, but (in) all the previous investigations, all the roads have gone to South Waziristan," he said Sunday.

South Waziristan is one of seven agencies of Pakistan's tribal areas where Taliban and al Qaeda militants are active.

But Amir Mohammad, an aide to leader of the Pakistani Taliban Baitullah Mehsud, said he shared the country's grief and was not involved, The Associated Press reported.

Saturday's massive blast left a nearly 60-foot-wide (18 meters) crater, which was 24 feet (7m) deep, Malik said. It also caused a natural gas leak that set the top floor of the five-story, 258-room hotel on fire, police said. The blaze quickly engulfed the entire structure.

The blast occurred about 7:50 p.m., after the breaking of the fast during the holy month of Ramadan, Malik said. Trees were felled by the explosion, which occurred hours after newly elected President Asif Ali Zardari addressed a joint session of Parliament and promised to root out terrorism.

At a news conference in Islamabad on Sunday, Pakistani authorities released security video of the blast, showing a small explosion inside the truck before the larger, deadly explosion.

In the video, a large truck crashes into the security gate, sending one security officer scurrying for safety. Then, as security guards approach the truck, the top of the vehicle explodes and the security guards flee. Watch guards scatter after an explosion »

A small cloud of smoke appears above the truck, which is engulfed in flames minutes later. One of the security guards tries to put out the fire with a hand-held extinguisher, to no avail. The guards then walk away, and the camera freezes on the burning truck.
Pakistani officials said the blast apparently disrupted electricity to the area, causing the closed-circuit television camera to malfunction.

The Marriott, a Western brand-name hotel, has been the site of attacks in the past.

Malik said authorities had received a threat against the parliament two days ago. "We had taken all security measures," he said. "There was heavy security in the city."

Located near the diplomatic section of the city and heavily guarded by police and military, the hotel is popular among tourists and had been packed Saturday night.

British Airways temporarily suspended its flights to Islamabad Sunday as a result of the security situation, according to an airline spokeswoman who did not want to be named.

A Sunday night flight was canceled, and the airline is reviewing its operations for later in the week. British Airways operates at least three flights a week to the Pakistani capital out of London's Heathrow Airport.

• Militants kidnapped an Afghan diplomat and killed his driver in northwest Pakistan Monday, police said. The diplomat, Abdul Khaliq Farahi -- who works in the Afghan consulate in Peshawar -- was on his way home when someone opened fire, police in Peshawar said.

The shooting killed Farahi's driver and he was abducted, said Akhtar Muneer of Peshawar police

 

[Spring Onion]

So were they going to have dinner at roadside ?????

 

[Cheetah786]

That points towards a *** inside Intelligence agency.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Investigators hunt al Qaeda cell after blast

​

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani investigators on Monday scrambled to track down an Islamabad-based al Qaeda cell believed to have carried out the devastating bombing of the Marriott Hotel, security officials said.

Investigators said they believed the attackers constructed the massive 600-kg truck bomb at a safe house in the capital, since all lorries entering the heavily-guarded city are searched at checkpoints.

‘Our focus at the moment is to track down the network in Islamabad which must have facilitated the movement and construction of the bomb,’ a senior official involved in the investigation told AFP.

Dramatic video footage of Saturday night’s attack showed the attacker failed to get through a barrier when he crashed his explosives-laden six-wheeler truck into the five-star hotel’s security gates.

He detonated a small bomb in the cab and guards struggled to put out the resulting blaze, the footage showed, before a gigantic blast turned the hotel into a fireball.

‘Carrying 600 kilos of explosives over long distances and through checkpoints is not possible, so our immediate suspicion is that the bomb was loaded in Islamabad,’ the official said.

It was likely, however, that the explosives were smuggled into Islamabad in small consignments from militant strongholds in the rugged tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, the official added.

Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik on Sunday pointed the finger at al Qaeda militants and their Taliban allies based in the same northwestern frontier regions.

Another senior Pakistani security official said on Monday the explosives used in the bombing were like those used in two other major militant attacks, including one on the Danish embassy in Islamabad in June.

‘We are collecting evidence. The explosives were similar to those used in the Danish embassy, which was claimed by al Qaeda, and the attack on the ISI camp in Rawalpindi last year,’ the official said.

No group claimed responsibility for the bombing of a bus near a facility of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Rawalpindi in November last year, which killed at least 15 people.

DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Investigators hunt al Qaeda cell after blast

 

[blain2]

Dinner plans save Pakistan's rulers from hotel bomb attack

I wish they had not canceled this dinner. It would have saved the lives of all the people. Had the PM/President been at the hotel, this truck would not have been allowed at even the outside perimeter.

 

[gpit]

The motivation behind the atrocity seems yet to reveal. Here is another report from Bloomberg.

-----------------------

Bloomberg.com: Asia


Pakistani Leaders Narrowly Avoided Marriott Bomb (Update1)

By Paul Tighe and James Rupert

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan's government leaders scheduled a dinner at the Marriott Hotel two days ago for the time that the hotel was bombed, though they moved the event shortly beforehand, Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said.

``The national assembly speaker had arranged a dinner for the entire leadership -- for the president, prime minister and armed services chiefs -- at the Marriott that day,'' Malik told reporters today in Islamabad, the capital. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ordered the dinner moved to the prime minister's residence, ``thus the whole leadership was saved,'' Malik said.

The planners of the suicide truck bombing aimed to wipe out the Pakistani leadership, Gilani told the state news agency, Associated Press of Pakistan. The Czech ambassador, two U.S. citizens and a Vietnamese woman were among 53 people the government says were killed by the bomb, the government said.

Malik told reporters yesterday the government had received a general warning of a possible terrorist attack, and Gilani said security was tighter at his residence than at the hotel. Neither official said specifically that warnings of an attack had led to the dinner being shifted.

While the government hasn't blamed any group for the bombing, Malik said investigations of previous attacks ``have led to South Waziristan and to Tehrik-i-Taliban,'' the main Pakistani Taliban movement.

The truck, carrying more than 600 kilograms (1,300 pounds) of explosives smashed into the hotel's security gate and blew up several hours after Zardari gave his first presidential speech to parliament. He called for Pakistan's fight against terrorism to emphasize economic improvements in ethnic Pashtun western regions dominated by Taliban guerrillas, and said military force should be used only when necessary.

Assaults on Taliban

The U.S. has pressed Pakistan to step up military assaults on the Taliban, who also are battling U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and this month U.S. forces have intensified their own attacks in western Pakistan.

The 290-room Marriott, located 1 kilometer (0.6 of a mile) from Pakistan's Parliament, presidency and ministries, was hit by bombs in 2004 and 2007.

Security forces have been attacking militants in the tribal regions in recent weeks, including offensives in the Bajaur area that killed more than 700 fighters since August, the military said last week.

The government has put pressure on terrorists and the Marriott bombing may be a result of their frustration, Gilani said, according to APP.

Poverty, Illiteracy

Poverty, illiteracy and a lack of basic amenities are contributing to extremism and that is why the government has adopted its strategy in the tribal areas, he said.

South Waziristan is the stronghold of Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, whose guerrillas fight U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Pakistan says Mehsud is a senior al-Qaeda figure and blames him for suicide bombings, including the December assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

The CIA said this year Waziristan has become a new base for al-Qaeda. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack two days ago. The previous suicide car bombing in Islamabad, against the Danish embassy in June, was claimed by al-Qaeda.

The attackers at the Marriott tried to smash the truck through the hotel's entry barricades, security camera footage released by the government showed. The truck, loaded with at least 600 kilograms (1,300 pounds) of explosive, swerved into the gates and burned for several minutes before detonating.

Security Gates

The gates kept the truck from entering the compound and causing more casualties, Malik said at a news conference in Islamabad yesterday.

Malik rebuffed a U.S. offer of FBI help in the investigation. ``We reject it,'' he said. ``Our agencies are quite competent.''

The attack came hours after Zardari pledged to resist recent incursions into Waziristan and other border areas by U.S. forces in Afghanistan battling Mehsud and his allies. Zardari spoke in his first speech to Parliament since succeeding Pervez Musharraf on Sept. 9.

President George W. Bush vowed to ``fully support the democratically elected government of Pakistan and the Pakistani people as they face enormous challenges economically as well as from terrorism,'' in his condemnation of the attack.

Bush is to meet with Zardari tomorrow during the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

Separately, one person was killed and an Afghan diplomat was kidnapped as gunmen attacked an Afghan consulate in Pakistan, Sky News said in a report today, citing Reuters.

To contact the reporters on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net; James Rupert in Islamabad jrupert3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 22, 2008 07:43 EDT

 

[Spring Onion]

too many conspiracy theories by media like killing of BB.

 

[fatman17]

A SHADOWEY GROUP CALLED "FEDAYEEN OF ISLAM" HAVE CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE SUICIDE BOMB ATTACK ACCORDING TO AL-JAZZERRA TV/RADIO.

 

[RescueRanger]

A SHADOWEY GROUP CALLED "FEDAYEEN OF ISLAM" HAVE CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE SUICIDE BOMB ATTACK ACCORDING TO AL-JAZZERRA TV/RADIO.

Apparently this is a new group that i had not heard off and should not be confused with the Iranian "Footsoliders of Islam" apparently this group was established by Afghan leader Gulbadeen Hikmatyar who has quite an active history and most recntly had been spotted along the Pak Afghan border.

 

[Spring Onion]

Apparently this is a new group that i had not heard off and should not be confused with the Iranian "Footsoliders of Islam" apparently this group was established by Afghan leader Gulbadeen Hikmatyar who has quite an active history and most recntly had been spotted along the Pak Afghan border.

Well Sir i dont think so its that one.
Secondly realtions between Hikmatyar and real Taliban are not good nor they world togather as much.

Above all they are so much busy in Afghanistan there is no point they will create any mess for Pakistan here.

The blasts seems to be another attempt to engage Pakistan within its own areas so that the players concerned can carry on their bigger plans in Afghanistan.

 

[RescueRanger]

Well Sir i dont think so its that one.
Secondly realtions between Hikmatyar and real Taliban are not good nor they world togather as much.

Above all they are so much busy in Afghanistan there is no point they will create any mess for Pakistan here.

The blasts seems to be another attempt to engage Pakistan within its own areas so that the players concerned can carry on their bigger plans in Afghanistan.

Thank you Jana, i must admit this group is totally new to me and i have researched some strange one's in our borders and beyond so someone's else input is more then welcome.

Moreover, what i dont understand is why would a group with no apparent links to Pakistan, who's leader is busy trying to kill Karzai be invloved in Pakistan, i found it a bit hard to digest and thanks to your educated input it will benifit my assessment of this new "twist" in the story.

 

[Spring Onion]

Thank you Jana, i must admit this group is totally new to me and i have researched some strange one's in our borders and beyond so someone's else input is more then welcome.

Moreover, what i dont understand is why would a group with no apparent links to Pakistan, who's leader is busy trying to kill Karzai be invloved in Pakistan, i found it a bit hard to digest and thanks to your educated input it will benifit my assessment of this new "twist" in the story.

Thank you sir for your civilized manner.


Well it is pretty difficult to put blam on anyone at this moment.
There are too many things too many conspiracy theories but to believe that any new group has done is not possible on many counts. A new group wont be having so much resources at hands to carry out such massive attack.
And if we believe it is a new group then it must have been planing for a long time to carry out this attack. Plus they must be having links with powerful militants groups which have access to the highly explosive material.
But still i dont think so its any new group or even some old group.

This statment is i guess some bluff to hide many things for if it was handiwork of any such new group it would have accepted the responsibility immediatly.


Above all the name of Al-Jazeera should ring a bell as one should ask this question why its always Al-Jazeera that such groups send their advertismnet type of statements recently.

Plus look at the points to ponder

1. Presence of Marines
2. Presence of steel Boxes (with some well sensitive material?)
3. Rehman Malik's confusing statements
4. Trying to give the event a color that entire cabinet and PM might have been the target (rubish)


A. Above all it was for the first time that RDX and TNT was used. It means we need to look for the source of this material.

B. Look at the large scale damage recieved by the hotel building as well as the srounding buildings.
Is it not possible that some explosive material was also present at the hotel???
might be in steel boxes????

C. the Vehicles of the foreign embassies are not checked anywhere here thats what i had seen. YOu can not rule out a bigger game.

 

[RescueRanger]

Thank you sir for your civilized manner.


Well it is pretty difficult to put blam on anyone at this moment.
There are too many things too many conspiracy theories but to believe that any new group has done is not possible on many counts. A new group wont be having so much resources at hands to carry out such massive attack.
And if we believe it is a new group then it must have been planing for a long time to carry out this attack. Plus they must be having links with powerful militants groups which have access to the highly explosive material.
But still i dont think so its any new group or even some old group.

This statment is i guess some bluff to hide many things for if it was handiwork of any such new group it would have accepted the responsibility immediatly.


Above all the name of Al-Jazeera should ring a bell as one should ask this question why its always Al-Jazeera that such groups send their advertismnet type of statements recently.

Plus look at the points to ponder

1. Presence of Marines
2. Presence of steel Boxes (with some well sensitive material?)
3. Rehman Malik's confusing statements
4. Trying to give the event a color that entire cabinet and PM might have been the target (rubish)


A. Above all it was for the first time that RDX and TNT was used. It means we need to look for the source of this material.

B. Look at the large scale damage recieved by the hotel building as well as the srounding buildings.
Is it not possible that some explosive material was also present at the hotel???
might be in steel boxes????

C. the Vehicles of the foreign embassies are not checked anywhere here thats what i had seen. YOu can not rule out a bigger game.

All very valid points, the ones about diplomatic vehicles is very true and while I was sceptical about the boxes initially i really am now pondering, why? And why so many?

All I know is that my friend was on the security team at Marriott and he embraced martyrdom. It would have been decent of this government to consider the families and friends of the bereaved and give this event a proper enquiry magar is mey be do numbri kar rahain han! Kya eik aafat sey baaz nahi aye ye?