| Subject: Another paki paper supports the UPI report |
Author:
Philip Cyriac
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Date Posted: 14:36:21 03/18/02 Mon
In reply to:
S
's message, "Re: Alisha's outburst" on 04:59:06 03/18/02 Mon
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/mar2002-daily/18-03-2002/main/main6.htm
Church incident an anti-US strike?
By Kamran Khan
Karachi: Pakistani security officials were nearing a consensus on Sunday night that the grenade attack against the Protestant International Church in the capitals' diplomatic enclave was more of an anti-United States terrorist strikes than an attack on church goers in Pakistan, informed a senior official in Islamabad.
"The attackers had definite information that the US diplomatic community in Islamabad visit this church for the Sunday service," Pakistani official said. " If they wanted to attack a Sunday church service, there were many less secured targets available all over the country," Pakistani security officials in Islamabad said that their US counterparts also believed that the US citizens praying in the church might have been the principal target for the Sunday's terrorist strike that had jolted the diplomatic community in the Pakistani capital city.
"The attackers had definite information that the church is frequented by the US and western diplomatic Christian community of Islamabad," said a Islamabad police official The attack came amidst intelligence reports that the US installations and citizens are likely to come under terrorist attack all over the world , particularly in Pakistan.
Among the five people killed in the attack were Barbara Green and her daughter Kristen Wormsley, a senior at the American School in Islamabad.Ms. Barbara Green worked at the administration section of the US embassy while her husband, Milton Green, an official at the computer division in the US embassy, was wounded in the incident.
Ten other US embassy staff members received injuries on their lower limbs in the grenade attack. Two Pakistani and an Afghan citizen were also among those killed while praying at the church Sunday. Some Pakistani officials involved in the investigation of the church attack were quick to suspect that the grenade attack may have some relevance with the indictment in the U.S. last week of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of the slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
The indictment is likely to cause increased pressure of General Pervez Musharraf administration to extradite Omar Sheikh to the U.S. Strong counter-terrorism action by the US law-enforcement officials had followed the broad day light assassinations of two US consulate general staff in Karachi in March 1995 and the gunning down of four American staff members of Union Texas , Pakistan in November 1997.
Pakistani officials noted that the dramatic arrest and swift extradition of Ahmed Yusuf Ramzi from Islamabad in February 1995 had followed the sensational daylight murder of two US consulate officials in Karachi. The deceased officials were later identified as the undercover personals of the US National Security Agency (NSA).
Similarly the death penalty verdict against Aimal Kansi -- convicted on the charges of killing of two CIA officials outside the agency's headquarters in Langley -- was intriguingly followed by the killing in Karachi of four American employees of the Union Texas , Pakistan. " We will not be comfortable ruling out a connection between the Church incident and the Pearl murder investigation," said a senior Pakistani security official.
Despite nation wide efforts by all law enforcing agencies of Pakistan , there is s till no clue about Pearl's killers, his body parts, the weapons used in the incident or the place where the Wall Street Journal reporter was slaughtered in Karachi. Several times during his interrogation or during chit chat with police officials in Karachi, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh had claimed that his associates would react to his extradition to the U.S. The terrorist attack on Sunday represented fourth incident in Pakistan where unidentified terrorist groups targeted the US citizens.
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