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06-02-2008 06:50 PM |
6 Killed 27 Injured in Car Bomb Attack on Danish Embassy in Islamabad
In the name of God/Allah...
Quote:
At least six people were killed and twenty-seven wounded yesterday in a car bomb attack on the Danish Embassy in Islamabad by suspected Islamic militants, apparently in reprisal for the republication of a blasphemous cartoon in Danish newspapers.
A car carrying fake diplomatic number plates exploded at the parking area, tearing down part of the two story building and destroying several vehicles. The blast echoed through the Pakistani capital and left a crater three feet deep at the embassy?s entrance. The car?s engine was tossed 50 feet in the air by the force of the explosion and landed on a villa in a neighbouring street.
None of the four Danes stationed at the Embassy was injured, but one Danish citizen of Pakistani origin died there, officials in Copenhagen said.
The cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad depicts him in a bomb-shaped turban and was one of twelve originally published in 2005, sparking riots throughout the Muslim world.
On April 21, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda?s deputy leader, called on Muslims to exact revenge. ?I urge and incite every Muslim who can harm Denmark to do so in support of the Prophet,? he declared in a video message.
Kamal Shah, a senior Interior Ministry official, said that it was not yet clear if the explosion had been caused by a suicide bombing, a timebomb or a remote-control device. The Danish Embassy promised to supply investigators with footage from its closed-circuit television cameras.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister, described the bombing as ?an attack against Denmark?. ?Denmark will not alter its policy because of a terror attack,? he said. Danish troops serve both in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Witnesses spoke of panic in the aftermath of the explosion. ?I was with a friend passing through a nearby street when we heard a big bang,? said Muhammad Akhtar, a bystander.
?Then we saw smoke and people running in a frenzy. We shifted at least eight or nine injured to hospitals. They have all got serious injuries. They were soaked in blood.?
The office of a Pakistani development organisation opposite the embassy was badly damaged. Its roof had partly collapsed. Anjum Masood, a field operations manager for the UN-funded group, Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment, said that dozens of its hundred employees had been wounded, mostly by flying glass. His own left hand was bandaged.
He said that the group had been worried about its location across from the embassy. ?We tried to voice our concern that it should be moved . . . We were under a lot of threat.?
Residents said they had long feared such an attack. ?Since the printing of the cartoons, we always had this fear,? said Sana Khalid, a woman living in the neighbourhood. ?But what they did to our religion, they deserve it.?
A plume of smoke rose above the scene of the blast and sirens wailed. The Danish flag and the EU flag were blown off their masts and had snagged on the first-floor balcony of the main embassy building. The guard house outside the embassy was badly damaged.
Security officials said that the attack bore the hallmark of al-Qaeda, which has been operating from the lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan. The bomb exploded a few blocks from a main boulevard where a heavy contingent of army troops was deployed to guard the route of President Musharraf?s cavalcade.
The President was on his way to the National Defence University. A private television channel quoting police sources said that the bomber could have hit the Danish Embassy after failing to strike the presidential convoy.
It was the second terrorist attack on foreign installations and citizens in the capital in less than three months since the new Government took office. In March a Turkish woman was killed and four FBI officials wounded in a bomb attack on a restaurant.
The latest bombing came as the new Government, led by the Pakistan People?s Party, tried to make peace with Islamic militants in the tribal areas that Western intelligence agencies say have become the main base of al-Qaeda activities. The United States has expressed concern that the peace deals will simply give the militants time to regroup and intensify attacks on US and Nato forces in Afghanistan.
The Government has tightened security, especially around foreign installations. The Norwegian and Swedish embassies, which are also located in the neighbourhood, were closed after the attack.
Salman Bashir, the Foreign Secretary, pledged that Pakistan would do all it could to safeguard foreign diplomatic missions. ?I think the Pakistani nation feels very ashamed today on incidents such as these,? he said.
In April, embassy personnel from the Netherlands were moved to a hotel in Islamabad because of concerns after the release of a film critical of the Koran by a far-right Dutch MP.
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