Leaders were due at hotel, Pakistani says
Plans changed at last minute; Marriott denies dinner was slated
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's top leaders were to dine at the Marriott Hotel devastated by a truck bombing over the weekend, but changed the venue at the last minute, a senior official said yesterday. A hotel official, however, denied there were any plans for a government dinner.
The attack that killed 53 people - including the Czech ambassador and two US Defense Department employees - and wounded hundreds came at a time of strains in the US-Pakistani alliance over increasing unilateral raids by US forces in Afghanistan aimed at militants across the border in Pakistan. Two intelligence officials said Pakistani troops and tribesmen opened fire on two US helicopters late Sunday after the aircraft crossed from Afghanistan into the northwest tribal region, where Taliban and Al Qaeda militants are operating. The United States denied the report.
Dubai-based TV channel Al-Arabiya reported it had received a tape from a little known group calling itself Fedayeen al-Islam - Arabic for "Islam commandos" - claiming responsibility for the hotel bombing Saturday and demanding an end to US-Pakistan cooperation against Islamic militants.
Pakistan's government is under US pressure to crack down on the militants entrenched in the rugged, lawless tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border, who are blamed for attacks on US-led coalition forces in neighboring Afghanistan. Al Qaeda's leaders, including Osama bin Laden, are believed to be hiding in the border region.
Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, visiting Washington, said his government was proposing that the United States, Afghanistan, and Pakistan create a joint military force with the power to operate on both sides of the border to fight militants. He said the idea was discussed at a meeting more than a month ago that also included Pakistani officials.
Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik did not specify why the prime minister and president decided to move the dinner from the Marriott to the premier's house but said that decision was kept secret.
"Perhaps the terrorists knew that the Marriott was the venue of the dinner for all the leadership where the president, prime minister, speaker, and all entire leadership would be present," he told reporters. "At the 11th hour, the president and prime minister decided that the venue would be the prime minister's house. It saved the entire leadership."
However, a spokesman for the hotel owner said it had no plans to host a dinner for government leaders.
"We didn't have any reservation of such a dinner that the government official is talking about," Jamil Khawar said.
Malik had said Sunday that the Marriott was probably targeted because the attack would get tremendous attention. But Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the bomber attacked the hotel only after security kept him from reaching Parliament or the premier's residence, both less than a mile away.
The blast prompted foreign diplomatic missions and aid groups in Pakistan to review their security status. In Washington, the State Department said Pakistan had declined US assistance in the investigation.
In a further sign of Pakistan's deteriorating security situation, gunmen kidnapped Afghanistan's ambassador-designate Abdul Khaliq Farahi yesterday and killed his driver in the northwestern city of Peshawar, said a spokesman for the Afghan mission in the city.
The US Embassy in Islamabad warned its employees to limit their movement to travel to and from the embassy and to shopping for essential items only. American consulates in Lahore and Peshawar reminded their personnel to avoid large hotels in those cities. The embassy warned all Americans to stay away from crowds, keep a low profile, and avoid patterns by varying times and routes for all required travel. 