Uncle Sam
03-15-2004, 12:23 PM
http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/391158|top|03-15-2004::11:08|*******.html
KARACHI, Pakistan (*******) - Police in Pakistan defused a huge car bomb found outside the U.S. consulate in Karachi on Monday, just two days before Secretary of State Colin Powell visits the country.
A van packed with explosives was towed away from the consulate during the morning rush hour to a nearby sports ground, where bomb disposal experts defused it, police said.
"If this exploded it would have caused massive destruction," Munir Ahmed Sheikh, a sub-inspector at the city's bomb squad, told *******. "God has saved us."
A suicide car bombing outside the same consulate in June 2002 killed 12 Pakistanis and wounded 45. That attack was the work of Islamic militants opposed to Pakistani cooperation in the U.S.-led war on terror.
A U.S. embassy spokesman said consulate security personnel spotted the van and informed police before staff had arrived.
"Our people are not working, at least for today," he said.
Powell is due to visit the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, but not Karachi, Wednesday. He is visiting Pakistan on a tour that also takes him to India and Afghanistan.
Police said it was too early to identify any group involved in the latest attempt to attack the heavily guarded consulate but Islamic militants were prime suspects.
Investigators had found important clues and some arrests were expected, said Kamal Shah, chief of police in Sindh province, of which Karachi is capital.
"We are not totally in the dark. We have some leads," Shah told *******. He declined to elaborate.
STOLEN VAN
A 750-liter drum containing a mixture of chemicals, including ammonium nitrate, was loaded on the van, but apparently it was not connected with detonators, police said.
Security cameras at the U.S. mission caught pictures of a man parking the van, getting out and talking to a guard, police said. A copy of the footage has been handed to police.
"A youngster parked the van in front of the consulate, telling guards that it had broken down. He then drove away in another car," said Fayyaz Leghari, a deputy inspector general of police.
The van was stolen in the city Sunday evening by two gunmen who wounded the vehicle's owner when they grabbed it, police said.
Since Pakistan joined the U.S.-led war on terror in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks militants have carried out a string of assaults against Western interests, Christians and top government officials.
Pakistani authorities have arrested hundreds of militants, including some senior members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network over the past two years, but officials say militant groups, though weakened, are capable of launching attacks.
President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escaped two bomb attacks in December.
KARACHI, Pakistan (*******) - Police in Pakistan defused a huge car bomb found outside the U.S. consulate in Karachi on Monday, just two days before Secretary of State Colin Powell visits the country.
A van packed with explosives was towed away from the consulate during the morning rush hour to a nearby sports ground, where bomb disposal experts defused it, police said.
"If this exploded it would have caused massive destruction," Munir Ahmed Sheikh, a sub-inspector at the city's bomb squad, told *******. "God has saved us."
A suicide car bombing outside the same consulate in June 2002 killed 12 Pakistanis and wounded 45. That attack was the work of Islamic militants opposed to Pakistani cooperation in the U.S.-led war on terror.
A U.S. embassy spokesman said consulate security personnel spotted the van and informed police before staff had arrived.
"Our people are not working, at least for today," he said.
Powell is due to visit the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, but not Karachi, Wednesday. He is visiting Pakistan on a tour that also takes him to India and Afghanistan.
Police said it was too early to identify any group involved in the latest attempt to attack the heavily guarded consulate but Islamic militants were prime suspects.
Investigators had found important clues and some arrests were expected, said Kamal Shah, chief of police in Sindh province, of which Karachi is capital.
"We are not totally in the dark. We have some leads," Shah told *******. He declined to elaborate.
STOLEN VAN
A 750-liter drum containing a mixture of chemicals, including ammonium nitrate, was loaded on the van, but apparently it was not connected with detonators, police said.
Security cameras at the U.S. mission caught pictures of a man parking the van, getting out and talking to a guard, police said. A copy of the footage has been handed to police.
"A youngster parked the van in front of the consulate, telling guards that it had broken down. He then drove away in another car," said Fayyaz Leghari, a deputy inspector general of police.
The van was stolen in the city Sunday evening by two gunmen who wounded the vehicle's owner when they grabbed it, police said.
Since Pakistan joined the U.S.-led war on terror in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks militants have carried out a string of assaults against Western interests, Christians and top government officials.
Pakistani authorities have arrested hundreds of militants, including some senior members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network over the past two years, but officials say militant groups, though weakened, are capable of launching attacks.
President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escaped two bomb attacks in December.