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FBI Investigates Karachi Blast Site As Consulate Opens
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U.S. authorities, including the FBI, investigate the area surrounding the bomb attack at the U.S. Consulate in Karachi Sunday |
KARACHI,
June 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) team visited the scene of the devastating car bomb
attack on the U.S. consulate in Karachi for the third consecutive day
on Monday, June 17, as the consulate will reopen Tuesday, June 18,
with “enhanced security,” a consulate official said.
According
to U.S. daily newspaper, USA Today, nearly 20 FBI and other law
enforcement officials, many of whom were flown in to investigate the
bombing, are currently in Pakistan investigating the bomb attack.
Pakistani
police said the FBI agents were trying to find clues about the device
which triggered Friday’s explosion, which killed 12 people, all
Pakistanis, and injured more than 50.
“They
used cranes to lift some of the damaged cars and then took a close
look at the vehicles outside the consulate in search of the
evidence,” said a police official, requesting anonymity.
Police
and paramilitary troops have also been deployed to search for vital
evidence, he said, adding the road where the bomb went off will be
closed until further notice.
Witnesses
said the FBI team arrived in the morning and spent several hours
taking notes and holding discussions.
The
FBI agents collected wreckage and videotaped the scene of the attack,
assembling evidence that might tell them whether the powerful
explosion was detonated by a suicide attacker or by remote control,
reports the Washington Post.
An official added that FBI investigators have not determined what
vehicle carried the bomb. They said the high-roof Suzuki van
originally thought to have ferried the bomb to the consulate had been
taken away for closer examination.
The
building sustained only moderate damage, but the intensity of the
blast, which blew a 13-foot (four-meter) hole in the consulate wall
and a two-foot (60-centimeter) crater in the road, flung the Suzuki
van across the road and into a park.
Although
investigators initially believed it was a suicide attack, they now
suspect the bomb could have been a remote-controlled device planted in
a driving school-owned Toyota Corolla carrying four women.
The
victims in the van were later determined to be a Karachi man and his
niece, and a physician who was to be married the following day,
reports the Post.
Sindh
police chief Syed Kamal Shah is due to brief reporters later today on
the investigation's progress.
Although
no one has been arrested, U.S. intelligence officials in Pakistan
believed they believe that Al-Qaeda or an affiliated group carried out
the bombing, but they said they had no evidence, reports USA Today.
Police
said they have so far taken around 40 witness statements including
from some of the 51 injured. They are focusing their attentions on
local groups purportedly linked with the Al-Qaeda network and said
they were taking seriously a claim of responsibility from a previously
unknown group called Al-Qanoon, or the Law, news agencies reported.
The
group said in a fax sent Sunday to the Pakistani newspaper Umat that
if the country’s President, General Pervez Musharraf, didn’t
resign, there would be more attacks, reports the Post.
Retired
Pakistani general Talat Masood, a security analyst, said Al-Qaeda’s
involvement “cannot be ruled out. Surely, this is the price we are
paying for our support to the international community in the war
against terrorism,” reports USA Today.
Sindh’s
home secretary Brigadier Mukhtar Sheikh on Sunday, June 16, said the
bomb blast was a message to the United States and a warning to
Pakistan to stop supporting the U.S.-led “war against terrorism.”
Sheikh,
said that although the culprits have not been identified, authorities
were sure the attack was linked to the ongoing battle against
“militants.”
He
also warned of further attacks. “We are working on different
leads, but the message of the blast was for America and that is why
the U.S. consulate was targeted,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP)
on Sunday.
“It
sounds a warning to the Pakistani government as well, as we are an
ally of the international coalition against terrorism,” he said,
referring to Islamabad’s efforts to track down Al-Qaeda and Taliban
fighters fleeing from Afghanistan.
Pakistani
authorities, for their part, are also searching for a fugitive named
Naeem Bukhari, leader of Lashkar-I-Jhangvi, described as the top
suspect in the attack, and also wanted in the kidnapping and slaying
of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
The
consulate itself will reopen Tuesday with “enhanced security,” a
U.S. official, who declined to be identified, said without
elaborating.
“Our
full American and Pakistani staff will be back at work and the
consulate will begin resuming normal operations. But in the near
future, the U.S. Consulate building will only be open to American
citizens,” said the official, reports news agencies.
The
U.S. Embassy in Islamabad as well as consulates in Lahore and Peshawar
reopened Monday, after being shut down after the Friday attack.
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