Pak arrests 3 suspects in the Marriott hotel bombing By Rezaul H Laskar

Islamabad, Sept 22 (PTI) Pakistani security forces Monday
arrested three men allegedly responsible for the biggest ever
bombing incident in the strife-torn country's history on the
Marriott Hotel here which killed 53 people, including the
Czech Ambassador and two U.S. marines.

Scrambling all its resources to track down militants
responsible for the devastating attack on Saturday night that
also injured 266 others, security forces arrested three men
during an operation from Kharian city of Punjab province.

Among those arrested was Qari Muhammad Ali, imam of the
main Jamia mosque in Kharian, Dawn News channel reported.

There was also no official word on the arrests and no
further details were available.

The security forces have launched a massive manhunt in
the capital as well as adjoining provinces to trace militant
cells responsible for the suicide bombing, described as the
"biggest" bomb attack in Pakistan's history.

Investigators are looking into the possibilities that the
bombers constructed a 600-kg bomb in a safe house in Islamabad
itself, as transporting such a heavy bomb load could not pass
the numerous checks on the highway leading to the capital.

Rescue workers Monday said they had completed their
search in most parts of the five-storey, 290-room hotel that
was a favourite gathering spot for Westerners and the
Pakistani elite. They said there was no possibility of any
more bodies being found in the blackened structure.

Meanwhile, the body of Czech Ambassador Ivo Zdarek was
Monday flown out in a special aircraft.

The body, placed in a coffin draped with the flag of the
Czech Republic, was carried by members of Pakistan's armed
forces to the tarmac of the Chaklala military airbase near the
garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik placed a wreath on
the coffin before it was taken into the aircraft.

Zdarek and a friend, a Vietnamese woman and two U.S.
marines, were among four foreigners killed in the attack.

A U.S. embassy official here confirmed that the two
employees of the U.S. defence department were among the dead
and that a third American, who was a contractor for the state
department was unaccounted for. Three other U.S. embassy
employees and a contractor were also injured.

Condemning the suicide attack, the local media labelled
it as "Pakistan's 9/11," insisting that the nation must shed
the notion that it is fighting America's war on terror.

The papers also said that the new civilian government
must immediately craft a new policy to fight the growing
threat from terrorists and extremists.

"Pakistan is fighting its own war against terrorism and
not America's," the country's leading newspaper Dawn said in
an editorial.

It pointed out that the target may have been "western" in
Islamabad's carnage but the timing – shortly after iftar –
ensured that that the majority of victims were Pakistanis.

"In the days ahead, the bombing will take to a fever
pitch the debate about whether Pakistan is fighting its own
war against terrorism or America's. The debate will miss the
point: it is an internal war, and it goes to the heart of what
we want Pakistan to be," the paper said in the lead editorial.
PTI RHL
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