| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Details on Karachi Consulate Bomb |
| 2004-03-16 |
| Around 600 litres of chemical explosives, a timer and two detonators were found in a Suzuki van left outside the tightly guarded US Consulate building by two men at around 7:30 am, police said. The device was set to explode some 20 minutes after bomb experts defused it, the violence-prone southern city’s police investigations chief Fayyaz Leghari told. In the movies they wait till there’s 2 seconds left. "The chemicals used in the car were of three kinds: hydrogen peroxide, ammonium nitrate, and nitrogen oxide, which could have caused a huge fire had they exploded," Leghari said. Yep, that would have left a mark. "The timer showed a 20-minute margin as bomb disposal experts defused it." Police called it an attempted terrorist attack. "The purpose was to create harassment and terrorism," provincial police chief Kamal Shah told. The attempted attack came two days before Powell’s two-day visit to the capital Islamabad for talks on the war against terrorism, peace moves with India, and nuclear proliferation. Powell was not scheduled to visit Karachi. A spokesman for the United States embassy in Islamabad confirmed the car was found but refused to go into details. "All I know is that a car was found and with the collaboration of Karachi police it was removed," spokesman Andrew Steinfeld told. Army bomb disposal experts removed the van to test the chemical substance and determine its intensity, police said. And source of origin. They added that the men who parked the vehicle told security guards that it had broken down then drove off in another car. Sloppy, guards should have held them till story checked out. The consulate in downtown Karachi, an Arabian Sea port city of 14 million, was the target of a gruesome suicide car bomb in June 2002 which killed 12 Pakistani bystanders and guards. |
| Posted by:Steve |