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We’re determined to fight terror: Pakistan Minister

Nirupama Subramanian

- PHOTOS: AP AND AFP

DEEP SCAR: A Pakistani security official gathers evidence from the estimated 25-foot deep crater caused by the powerful bomb explosion outside the Marriott hotel in Islamabad on Saturday.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Information Minister Sherry Rehman said on Saturday night that the government would not be deterred in its resolve to fight terrorism by the deadly attack outside a landmark hotel in the capital that killed at least 40 people and wounded more than 150.

Local media reports said the blast was caused by 1000 kg of explosives packed in a truck that was driven up to the front gate of the Marriott hotel and detonated.

The owner of the hotel, Sadruddin Hashwani, told journalists at the site that most of the occupants were evacuated by a rear door as flames consumed the building after the blast.

Among the dead were guards and drivers in the front portions of the building that took the impact of the blast, or people who were in the lobby, which was also completely destroyed.

This reporter, who visited the blast site, saw scenes of panic and confusion in the immediate aftermath. Rescue efforts were hampered because the massive crater caused by the explosion, along with the mounds of earth thrown up from the crater, plus the rubble of concrete and mangled steel rods blocked access to the hotel.

Fire engines and ambulances could not get close enough to the hotel, and rescue workers had to carry the dead and injured over a virtual obstacle course. Dazed survivors staggered out of the hotel, some of them in blood-stained clothes and disoriented.

“I was in my office and suddenly, there was a huge sound, all the windows shattered and when I ran out of the office, I saw around 15 people lying on the ground. I don’t know dead or injured,” said Rustom Broung, a manager at the hotel.

A volunteer carries an injured person for treatment.

Amir, another hotel employee who was waiting on guests at an Iftaar reception in a banquet hall, said there was a massive sound and “the ceiling suddenly fell down.”

The number of casualties may have been much higher had the vehicle blown up inside the gates of the hotel. The brunt of the explosion was borne by the front portions of the building, and the road itself, where it did not spare a single parked car even on the opposite side of the road, street lamps and even trees. Debris from the blast was flung hundred of meters away.

The Marriott, part of a United States-owned franchise chain, has been a particular target of terrorist attacks.

In January 2007, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a side entrance to the hotel, killing a guard. There was another attack on the hotel earlier.

Media analysts said the attack was a response to the American missile strikes against the Taliban in the tribal areas and against the government’s co-operation with the U.S.-led “war on terror,” and called for a change of strategy.

But Ms. Rehman, who visited the injured in hospital, said the terror attack only strengthened the government’s determination to fight terrorism. “If terrorists think they can frighten the government by such acts, we are not frightened. Rather we more determined to fight them.”

Liaquat Baloch, deputy chief of the Jamat-i-Islami, in statements to several television channels, suggested an “Indian” hand behind the blast, linking it to the serial blasts in New Delhi last week.

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