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| 60 dead in Pakistan’s 9/11 |
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Sunday, September 21, 2008
US national among dead; scores of people including foreigners injured; Marriott Hotel devastated in deadly suicide attack
By Shakeel Anjum
ISLAMABAD: As many as 60 people were killed and scores injured, many of them seriously, in a suicide attack when an explosives-laden truck rammed into the main entrance of the Marriott Hotel here on Saturday hours after President Asif Zardari's address to parliament. Many analysts have termed the incident the 9/11 of Pakistan.
The intensity of the explosion can be gauged from the fact that it wreaked devastation on the hotel and the shockwaves jolted buildings far and wide. The windowpanes of the adjoining buildings were smashed.
Forty-four bodies had been shifted to different hospitals of the capital till the filing of this report.
The hotel is located in a high security zone as it is surrounded by important buildings. The Parliament House, the Presidency, the Prime Minister House and offices of ministers, judges colony and the colony of a sensitive agency are located near the hotel.
The explosive experts claimed that about 1,000 kg of explosives was used in the terrorist act.
Heavy machinery of the Army and air force, including foam-throwing fire apparatus, excavators and shovels were called in to help the civil administration rescue the people trapped in the rubble.
Foreigners staying in the hotel and local guests were among the injured. They were shifted to different hospitals of the city.
The Marriott Hotel is a favourite place for foreigners to stay and gather. The hotel has also been targeted by militants previously.
According to AFP, a US national was among those killed in the suicide attack while several foreigners were also wounded, hospital and security officials said. "We have the body of one American national killed in the blast," spokesman for the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Wasim Khawaja, told AFP. US embassy spokesman Lou Fintor refused to immediately confirm the death. A security official said the American was among at least two foreigners killed in the truck bomb blast.
NNI quoting hospital sources said the injured foreigners included three Americans, four Germans, British, Saudis, Danes, Swedes and Libyans. It is learnt that soldiers from a Western country were at the hotel when the blast occurred. An armed soldier from a western country was seen roaming outside the hotel after the attack. An employee of the hotel, Sultan, said that around 90 foreigners were staying at the 315-room hotel at the time of the blast.
The impact of the blast was so powerful that branches were torn off the trees and fell on cars, which smashed them. A driver of a car was killed in the parking lot of the hotel.
The road was littered with debris and broken branches from roadside trees while acrid smoke was drifting in the air.
The blast left a 50x60 feet wide and 25 feet deep crater at the main entrance of the hotel.
The blast smashed the ceiling of a banquet hall where about 500 people were having their meal after breaking the fast.
Bodies and injured were seen scattered near the main entrance while a body was found lying in front of PTV House, some 2,000 yards away from the site. Private security guards of the hotel, chauffeurs of the cars were the main victims of the blast.
The deadly explosion set the major parts of the hotel on fire and damaged buildings in a radius of one kilometre around the hotel including NWFP House, Balochistan House, PTV, and Evacuee Trust Building. Windowpanes of the buildings spread over four kilometres around the site, including the Geo offices at Fazl-e-Haq Road.
Over 450 vehicles parked in the parking lot of the hotel and outside the building, were completely destroyed.
The fire brigade was trying to bring the fire which had engulfed the hotel under control, but the skyrocketing flames had reduced the hotel to rubble while billowing smoke could be seen from far away.
Emergency was declared in the hospitals of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
Ambulances rushed to the scene which continued to make rounds for carrying the injured and the dead to the hospitals
A witness claimed that he saw a Shahzor truck stop at the main entrance of the hotel at about 8:00pm and a rider warned the guards to escape if they wanted to save their lives. Later another explosive-laden truck rammed into the main entrance.
Dr Waseem Khawaja, spokesman for the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) said that 23 bodies including a teenage boy and 97 injured were brought to PIMS out of which 30 were in a critical condition. He said that five bodies and 74 injured were in Polyclinic and six dead and 20 wounded were brought to CDA hospital.
The authorities of the capital administration feared the death toll could be over 100.
APP adds: Security was put on high alert across the country following the suicide attack.
The Interior Ministry has directed the provincial governments as well as the federal government to strengthen the security of the sensitive areas.
Meanwhile, the Islamabad Capital Territory Administration has further beefed up the security of diplomatic enclave and foreign missions, United Nations' offices and other sensitive places including mosques, Imam Bargahs and commercial areas.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
