Roundup: Eleven Killed, No One Claims Responsibility in Blast Near US Karachi Consulate

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, June 15, 2002

Roundup: Eleven Killed, No One Claims Responsibility in Blast Near US Karachi Consulate

The terrorist incidents cannot shake and weaken the government's resolve to combat terrorism in the country, Pakistan's Information Minister Nisar A. Memon said Friday.

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The terrorist incidents cannot shake and weaken the government's resolve to combat terrorism in the country, Pakistan's Information Minister Nisar A. Memon said Friday.

Commenting on the terrorist attack against the U.S. diplomatic mission in Karachi this morning, which killed at least 11 innocentpeople, he said Pakistan has been boldly facing the scourge of terrorism for quite some time and it remains undeterred and undaunted.

He pointed out that these were systematic attempts to terrorizePakistan into submission, stressing that Pakistan itself is the worst victim of terrorism not an exporter of terrorism.

Eleven persons including three women were killed in a large explosion near the U.S. consulate in Karachi.

According to reports reaching here, the blast occurred around 11:15 a.m. The bomb was planted in a white Suzuki van, which crashed into the consulate guard post, leaving a hole about three meters wide in the building's heavy concrete wall. Nearby buildings and vehicles were also damaged by the blast.

U.S. Marines immediately closed the entrances to the consulate building and took up protective positions. Streets in the area were also sealed off.

Rescue teams and police vehicles rushed to the scene, and ambulances were shuttling the injured to nearby hospitals.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast so far, and Pakistani police suspect the bombing was launched by Taliban or Al-Qaeda members.

Since the United States and its coalition forces launched a military campaign in Afghanistan, terrorist attacks against Westerners, specially American nationals, have remarkably increased in Pakistan's major cities.

Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was abducted and murdered in Karachi in January, while working on a story about Islamic militants.

On March 17, a suicide grenade attack at a church in Islamabad's diplomatic enclave killed five people, including two Americans.

Last month, 11 French engineers and three others were killed ina suicide attack in front of Sheraton Hotel in Karachi about 1.5 kilometers from Friday's scene of blast.

Meanwhile, the U.S. embassy in Islamabad and all U.S. consulates in Pakistan will be closed on Friday and through the weekend, the U.S. State Department announced.

"We have shut down all consulates and the embassy for the day and through the weekend while we review the security situation," spokeswoman Jo-Anne Prokopowicz was quoted as saying by media reports.

"Once that is done we will reassess the situation and go from there," she added.

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