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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistanis investigating al-Qaeda claim on consulate bombing |
| 2006-05-02 |
| Pakistani police said Monday they would investigate a statement purportedly from Al-Qaeda which claimed a deadly suicide bombing in March, but cast doubt on its authenticity. The bombing on March 2 killed five people including an American diplomat in the southern city of Karachi just before US President George W. Bush visited the country. An Internet statement, signed “Al Qaeda, of the Afghanistan Jihad (holy war)”, promised a “summer of hell” for US troops in Afghanistan. “Dozens of suicide operations have been carried out in Pakistan and Afghanistan within the large Al-Qaeda campaign against Zionists and Crusaders, including the attack against the US consulate in Karachi a day before the arrival of the biggest Crusader (Bush),” it said. The statement vowed that 2006 “would be decisive and that this summer would be hell for Crusader soldiers and their agents among the renegades.” Karachi police chief Niaz Siddiqui said the claim came almost two months after the attack. “I seriously doubt the authenticity of the claim,” he told AFP. He said an investigation into the attack was continuing but no major clues had been yet found. “Investigators will look into the statement but serious doubts are there over its authenticity.” No organisation had previously claimed responsibility for the March 2 attack. A month later, in another suicide bomb blast during a religious gathering in Karachi, more than 50 people were killed. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |