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FBI Joins U.S. Consulate Bombing Investigation in Karachi
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| U.S.
and Pakistani authorities investigating the scene of a bomb
blast in Karachi, Pakistan.
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WASHINGTON,
June 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Pakistani police on
Saturday, June 15, were joined by authorities from the U.S. as they
intensified their investigation into a devastating bomb attack on the
U.S. consulate which killed 11 people, all Pakistanis, and injured
more than 50.
Although
a small high-roofed Suzuki van was initially believed to be carrying
the bomb, police now believe it could have been a Toyota Corolla owned
by a local driving school that was blown to pieces in the blast.
A
bomb could have been planted in the vehicle, perhaps unbeknownst to
the female driving instructor and three women passengers, and
detonated by remote control as it passed the consulate in
Karachi
Friday, June 14, police sources said.
“Without
ruling out a suicide attempt, we are now also working on the option of
remote control device usage,” said home secretary of southern Sindh
province, Brigadier Mukhtar Sheikh.
So
far police have not been able to find any remains of a suspected
bomber, he said, leading them to believe it might not have been a
suicide attack as had first been thought.
Sheikh
said the death toll in the attack rose to 11, including six women,
after the grisly task of collecting dismembered remains from the area
in front of the consulate was completed. “Pieces of another
body have been found which appears to be that of a women and it pushes
the death toll to 11. These pieces were found from the scene of the
blast. The body has not yet been identified,” he said.
A
senior police investigator said the owner of the Khanum Driving
Institute, Meraj Khanum, was interrogated for several hours Friday. “We
called Meraj Khanum to find out about the car, when and where it went
and whether it was being followed by another car, as we are now
keeping all options opened from suicide to the remote control bomb,”
he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Meraj
told police that her instructor had taken the three women to a traffic
police office in southern
Karachi
to receive their licenses and that they were returning to the
institute when they become victims of the blast. “I can’t add
much to what I have told you and have no idea if terrorists planted a
bomb in the car or not,” the investigator quoted Meraj as saying.
A
team of foreign investigators including members of United States
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) visited the site of the blast
for over two hours Saturday. “A 20-member team of foreigners
visited the site, some of them took notes, and closely inspected the
wreckage of two or three damaged cars which are still lying on the
spot,” said a police official who declined to be identified.
“They
also took photographs and made a video of surrounding areas and the
spot of the bomb attack,” one witness said.
Washington
condemned the attack and said the
U.S.
embassy and
American
Center
in
Islamabad
, as well as the consulates in
Lahore
and
Peshawar
, would be closed to the public at least through the weekend.
Additional security from the
U.S.
was also arriving.
In
a warning issued to Americans in
Pakistan
, the U.S. Embassy in
Islamabad
said. “This explosion is a stark reminder again to all Americans
living in and traveling through
Pakistan
of the need to pay attention to their personal security situation.”
The
bombing also prompted the
U.S.
government to consider scaling back its diplomatic staff in
Pakistan
, which has become the front line in the war against Al-Qaeda, reports
news agencies.
The
U.S. State Department believes Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network
was behind the attack, because of its resemblance to the bombing of a
Karachi
bus in May. That attack killed 14 people, including 11 French
nationals.
According
to CNN, the official also said the size of the explosion suggested
al-Qaeda's involvement: “Pakistani groups haven’t demonstrated
that level of sophistication,” the official noted.
Four
agents from the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Services will
join the FBI in
Karachi
to help in the investigation, said Diplomatic Security spokesman Andy
Laine.
“These
people, if they think they’re going to intimidate the
United States
, they do not understand the United States of
America
. And we will continue to hunt them down and seek justice,” said
U.S. President George W. Bush during a visit to his home state of
Texas
.
Police
in
Pakistan
have closed all roads around the consulate as well as diplomatic
enclaves in the city with barbed-wire barricades, blocking access to
all vehicles and pedestrians.
Sindh
police chief Syed Kamal Shah said earlier that investigators have not
ruled out the possibility that the culprits may also be responsible
for the May 8 bombing outside the Sheraton hotel here which killed 11
French nationals and three Pakistanis. “It could be, but we are
also looking at other possible angles as well and it’s premature to
reach any conclusion,” he said, referring to the earlier attack
which was blamed on Al-Qaeda.
Police
said Friday they were taking “seriously” a statement from a
previously unknown group Al-Qanoon (“The Law”), which claimed
responsibility for the blast and warned more attacks would follow.
“We
accept the responsibility for the bomb blast near the American
consulate today,” said Al-Qanoon’s handwritten Urdu-language
statement sent to media offices in Karachi. “America and its
allies and its slave Pakistani rulers should prepare for more
attacks,” it said. “This bomb attack is just a beginning of
Al-Qanoon’s jihadi operation in Pakistan.”
Other
police sources said they had already begun hunting individuals of
outlawed groups in a bid to gather clues and were questioning
individuals already in custody.
“There
have been intelligence reports about the links of some of the outlawed
sectarian groups in the terrorist activities and we cannot ignore
their role,” a senior police official said, requesting anonymity.
The
bomb detonated around 11:15 am (0515 GMT) Friday blew a 13-foot
(four-meter) hole in the consulate wall and left a crater in the road.
It
damaged 13 cars and five motorbikes, stripped leaves off nearby trees
and blew out windows within a one-kilometer radius, leaving a
three-foot-deep crater.
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