Pakistan's 9/11

By CARLOTTA GALL
Published: September 20, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan " A huge truck bomb exploded at the gateway of the five-star Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on Saturday evening, just a few hundred yards from the prime minister’s house, where all the leaders of government were dining after the president’s address to Parliament.

At least 40 people were killed and 100 were wounded, according to The Associated Press. The toll was expected to grow because of reports that many people were still trapped inside the six-story hotel, which was engulfed in flames.

A vast crater, some 40 feet wide and 5 feet deep, lay at the security barrier to the hotel. Witnesses said security guards and their gate posts were buried under a mound of rubble. A line of cars across the street from the hotel were mangled and trees on the street were charred. Windows in buildings hundreds of yards away were shattered.

Witnesses said they dragged out dozens of bodies from the lobby of the hotel and an adjacent parking lot, including those of a number of foreigners.

The choice of target, where many Americans stay, brings into sharp relief, like few others could, Pakistan's alliance with the United States. Recent surveys have shown that the Pakistani public holds a very low opinion of American policy, and that many people call into question the alliance with the United States that was forged after 9/11 by former President Pervez Musharraf.

A prominent Pakistani lawyer, Athar Minallah, said: "It's the 9/11 for Pakistan. It's an attack on Pakistan, an attack on the people of Pakistan."

Mr. Minallah, a leader of the lawyers' movement that protested against the rule of President Pervez Musharraf, said the extremists "have crossed the limits."

"There cannot be any justification for this," he said. "It is for the people of Pakistan to join hands and sort out this menace. They are enemies of Pakistan."

In Washington, a White House spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, said: "The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack that took place in Islamabad, Pakistan. The United States will stand with Pakistan's democratically elected government as they confront this challenge."

One wounded American who works at the embassy here in the capital said he had just opened his car door in the parking lot when the explosion erupted. The American, who gave only his first name, Chris, said he had received injuries to his face, neck and shoulder, and was holding a bloody T-shirt to his face.

He said American Embassy personnel were at the scene, trying to help American citizens they said were trapped in the hotel.

Amjad Ali Khan, a guard on duty at a side entrance to the hotel, said he saw four to five bodies in the hotel parking lot and that he helped carry out 40 bodies from inside the hotel. He said they were “in the lobby and in the restaurant and everywhere.”

“There were very few people injured,” he said. “They were all dead.” He said he saw three Western women who had died from head wounds.

“They are terrorists,” he said when asked who he thought was responsible for the blast. “They threatened a few days ago. We heard there were four to five suicide bombers on the loose.”

The Marriott, a favorite place for foreigners to stay and gather, has been attacked by militants at least twice in the past, including a suicide attack in January 2007 that killed a policeman.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, and its exact cause was unclear.

But Pakistan, an ally of the United States in the fight against terrorism, has faced a wave of militant violence in recent weeks following army-led offensives against militants in its border regions, though the capital has avoided most of the bloodshed.

Jane Perlez contributed reporting.