Adil Najam
There was a bomb blast in Islamabad today as a car blew up in the parking lot of the Marriott Hotel. The details are still coming in but the indications at this point are that it is a suicide bombing. According to the news flash in The News:
Islamabad police has declared the blast, which occurred in the backyard car parking of a five star hotel located in the highly sensitive area here, a dastardly suicide bombing, resulting in the death of two persons. SP Islamabad, Sikandar Hayat told that the blast occurred due to suicide bombing killing two persons and injuring five, who were shifted to the polyclinic here. Following the bombing here, security high alert has been declared in Karachi and Peshawar also. Observers told that it was the gravest nature of security breach in the highly sensitive security zone of the capital city, as the President House, Pakistan Secretariat and some other key-buildings were located nearby. Eyewitnesses told Geo that the security guard intercepted the suicide bomber trying to bang into the hotel, when he detonated the bomb and blasted himself.
According to the CNN report:
The blast at around 2:37 p.m. (0935 GMT) was just hours before a Indian High Commission function to celebrate Republic Day was due to be held at the hotel. Police cordoned off the area and sirens wailed through the downtown district, where many government buildings including parliament and the office of the president are located…
“He was on foot. The blast occurred when he tried to enter the hotel,” Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmed, Islamabad police chief, said. A Reuters journalist saw blood and flesh scattered over the tarmac close to a side entrance, where the hotel’s night club and laundry services are located. A motorist, who declined to give his name, described hearing and feeling the explosion as he drove by.
He told Reuters: “As I was driving, I heard a huge blast at my back. The windscreen of my car shattered. When I turned round, I saw flesh scattered on the road.” The bomber’s remains were being examined by forensic experts. “The bomber appears to be in twenties. His face is not recognisable. His skull and lower body parts have been found,” retired Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, head of the Interior Ministry’s Crisis Management Cell, told Reuters.
Musharraf condemned the attack and vowed to continue fighting terrorism. “President Musharraf reiterated Pakistan’s unwavering commitment in the fight against extremism and terrorism and said that all out efforts be made to unmask and bring to book the perpetrators of this crime,” the official Associated Press of Pakistan quoted him as saying.
The Marriott is one of Islamabad’s main hotels, and is frequented by foreign diplomats and businessmen. The U.S. embassy barred staff from visiting the hotel after a small blast in the lobby in October, 2004…. Otherwise bomb attacks have been rare inside the capital in recent years. Security is tight and easier to enforce in the small, orderly purpose-built capital than it is in Pakistan’s larger crowded, sprawling cities.
Only last night – as I was looking at these pictures (all from Dawn) of hieghtened security because of Ashura and the banning of supposed ‘ulema’ because they might incite sectariat hatered – I was thinking how living under a cloud of constant insecurity and uncertainity has to take a toll on people’s psyche.
Even if we get ‘used’ to this insecurity, we do not really ever get ‘used’ to it. We merely take on a mask of either indiference, or cynicism, or fatalism, etc. about the state we live in. In no case is is a comfortable existence, and in every case it takes a toll on the very fabric of society, how it sees itself, and how it goes about its daily business.
Sometimes one reads of yet another such news and the resolve begins to waver. We have to find a way to live together in peace. There has to be a better way of expressing and resolving our differences? Will the violence end? How?
What a sad day today with another suicide attack on Marriott less than one year ago. I hear the hotel is completely destroyed
Ok so now the final chapter has closed on the Islamabad Marriott hotel. two different suicide bombers detonated both their vehicles loaded with explosives at the entrance. More than 50 people are reportedly dead and dozens of more dead bodies are reported to be lying inside. The most shocking aspect is that the hotel administration has already experienced similar incidents, albeit on a much small scale in the past. And still they did not make any substantial arrangements to both counter such attacks or have emergency arrangements to deal with the aftermath such as fire escape staircases and designated firefighting equipment such as fire hydrants and hoses located at strategic positions. Even after two hours of the blast, there is not a single attempt visible to put out the massive fire by official fire fighters, who themselves arrived after 90 mins.
Maybe we should ask Ch.Shujaat to go and negotiate with the people who carried out this atrocity? After all the more Mullahism is ‘treated with kidgloves’ the more they will want a Mullahraj.
Its time the government came clean and told the people of Pakistan – that they fear the Mullahs and we Pakistanis may as well just give up and accept the ‘enlightened fanaticism’ of the Taliban.
Or the Gov pulls its socks up and moves towards national unity and tackles terrorism and extremism in Pakistan properly – without the holy blessings of the MMA and Lal Masjid fanatics.
And so the Kalashinkov Shariat begins to be enforced. That makes how many suicide bombings in Pakistan this year? Seven..eight?
[…] Pakistan has recently seen a spate of bombings in its major cities, and even before this some in government were pointing towards a ‘foreign hand’ in these bombings. Both countries have long played this game of ‘blame the foreign hand’, including in the recent tragic train bombings in Mumbai. The impulse to do so at the first sign of trouble is a natural one in the sub-continent. Given the deep distrust that exists between the two, it may even be a natural inclination. But irrespective of the short-term political gains such finger-pointing might gain, it is not a very useful way to deal with deep tensions. (STORY INCOMPLETE…. MORE TO FOLLOW SHORTLY….) var AdBrite_Title_Color = ‘660000’; var AdBrite_Text_Color = ‘006699’; var AdBrite_Background_Color = ’66B5FF’; var AdBrite_Border_Color = ‘2D8930’; […]