Author: Aamir Ashraf
Publication: dailynews.att.net
Date: March 15, 2004
URL: http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=040315&cat=news&st=newspakistanusaexplosivesdc
A huge car bomb was defused by Pakistani
police outside the U.S. consulate in Karachi on Monday, just two days before
Secretary of State Colin Powell visits the country.
"If this exploded it would have
caused massive destruction," Karachi bomb squad officer, Munir Ahmed Sheikh,
told Reuters. "God has saved us."
The vehicle, which contained a 195-gallon
drum filled with chemicals including ammonium nitrate, and detonators,
was towed away from the consulate to a nearby sports ground, where bomb
disposal experts defused it, police said.
Police said it was too early to
say who may have been involved in the latest attempt to attack the heavily
guarded consulate, but Islamic militants were prime suspects.
Since Pakistan joined the U.S.-led
war on terror in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, militants have
carried out a string of assaults against Western interests, Christians
and top government officials.
Pakistani authorities suspect Islamic
militants, particularly supporters of al Qaeda, were responsible for two
car bomb attacks against President Pervez Musharraf in December.
Musharraf said Monday a Libyan national,
probably from the al Qaeda network, was a prime suspect behind an attempt
on his life in December in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.
"The attack on me, a foreigner was
involved ... a Libyan," Musharraf told tribal elders in Peshawar.
Musharraf said the Libyan, whom
he did not identify, was not in custody but the network responsible for
the attack, and other attacks in Pakistan, had been broken up.
"I want to tell you that the attack
on me and almost all the bomb blasts in Pakistan ... almost everyone has
been arrested," he said. "The entire network has been arrested."
Pakistan's support for the U.S.-led
war on terror was likely to figure prominently during Powell's trip. He
is due to visit the capital, Islamabad, but not Karachi, Wednesday.
He will also travel to Afghanistan,
where U.S. forces have launched a fresh hunt for Taliban fighters and al
Qaeda members, including Osama bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding
along the rugged Afghan-Pakistan border.
The campaign comes after a surge
in militant attacks in Afghanistan on aid workers and foreigners, as well
as against Afghan and U.S.-led forces.
Dozens of U.S. troops, including
special forces, took part in a helicopter- assisted raid on a cave complex
in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said Monday, killing three militants
and detaining 13.
Pakistani forces and some tribal
militia are sealing the Pakistan side of the mountainous border to stop
militants fleeing into Pakistan's tribal lands.
Musharraf said hundreds of foreign
militants were living in the semi- autonomous tribal areas. He urged the
bearded and turbaned tribal leaders to stop the guerrillas from carrying
out strikes against Afghanistan.
