Suicide bomber blows up bus in Pakistan, killing 14

By Nadeem Afzal

Associated Press

KARACHI, Pakistan – A suicide bomber blew up a shuttle bus parked outside a Karachi hotel Wednesday in a thunderous explosion that killed 11 French engineers, their Pakistani driver and a passer-by. Twenty-three people were wounded.

Pakistan’s government denounced the blast as an act of terrorism aimed at foreigners, and suspicion fell on militant Islamic groups angered by Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s support for the U.S.-led coalition’s war in neighboring Afghanistan.

There was no evidence linking the attack directly to the al-Qaida terrorist network of Osama bin Laden, but many of the militant Islamic groups in Pakistan are sympathetic to al-Qaida and some have links to the organization.

Musharraf promised to fight back.

“We feel this act of international terrorism has to be met with full force. My government has the complete resolve of meeting this threat,” he said without elaborating.

“I would appeal to the international community to understand our domestic environment resulting from our cooperation against international terrorism,” Musharraf said.

French President Jacques Chirac condemned the attack as “vile” and sent his newly appointed defense minister to Pakistan.

The 11 French who were killed were engineers working at the Karachi seaport for a state-owned French marine construction company, the French foreign ministry said in Paris. They were part of a team building a submarine Pakistan bought from France, Pakistani officials said.

The bus was parked outside the Sheraton Hotel when the bomb went off – apparently in a second vehicle driven by the bomber, tearing a large crater in the road and destroying nearby vehicles.

“We have recovered a charred body from a car,” said Sindh provincial police chief Sayed Kamal Shah, referring to the suicide bomber and the bomb-laden vehicle.

“The sound was so loud I think you could have heard it from six miles away,” said Munir Sheikh, a police officer who witnessed the explosion. The death toll stood at 14, including the bomber.

Ambulances struggled to reach the 23 wounded, weaving through the Karachi’s congested streets. A teeming industrial capital of 14 million people, it is Pakistan’s largest city.

“I took some of the bodies to the hospital. The condition was very bad. It was horrible,” said Mohammed Rizwan, an ambulance driver.

Gen. Rashid Quereshi, a government spokesman, called the explosion an act of terrorism and an attempt to terrorize foreigners in Pakistan.

“Those who did this were enemies of the civilized world,” Quereshi told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. He also said Pakistan would not falter in its support for the U.S. -led coalition’s war in neighboring Afghanistan.

“Pakistan will continue its support to the international community in the war against terrorism and these terrorist acts will not deter our resolve against terrorism,” he said.

Several foreigners in Pakistan have been killed in brutal attacks claimed by Islamic radicals, who backed Afghanistan’s collapsed Taliban regime and protested Pakistan’s support for the coalition war on terror.

Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in southern Karachi in January and killed by Islamic radicals protesting the detention of Taliban and al-Qaida in Guantanamo, Cuba. Four men accused of the killing are currently on trial in the Sindh city of Hyderabad, about 60 miles north of Karachi.

Following Wednesday’s blast, Singapore Airlines suspended all flights to Pakistan starting Friday, citing the “prevailing security situation.”

The New Zealand and Pakistani cricket teams canceled a five-day match they were to start playing in Karachi on Wednesday. The two teams were staying in a hotel across the street, where windows were blown out by the blast. Jeff Crowe, manager of the New Zealand team, said his group was going home.

“People were screaming in the hotel and I saw a number of dead people lying on the road. It was horrific,” said Pakistan cricket captain Waqar Younis.

Police were still trying to determine what kind of explosive was used and how it was detonated, Shah said. It’s not known whether the car slammed into the parked bus or whether it was parked nearby and detonated.

Westerners in Pakistan have been warned to use caution because of threats from militant Islamic groups protesting the war on terror.

Musharraf banned five extremist Muslim groups in January and two months later, grenade-hurling terrorists killed five worshippers in an Islamabad church attended by members of the foreign community.