ISLAMABAD, 3 June 2008 — An explosive-laden car blew up outside the Embassy of Denmark in the Pakistani capital yesterday, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens, officials and witnesses said.
The blast echoed through Islamabad and left a crater over three-feet deep in the road in front of the main gate to the embassy.
Glass, fallen masonry and dozens of wrecked vehicles littered the area. People, some bloodied, ran helter-skelter in a state of panic.
A perimeter wall of the embassy collapsed and its metal gate was blown inward, but the embassy building itself remained standing though its windows were shattered.
It was not clear who carried out the attack, as Pakistan’s main militant group recently declared a cease-fire.
The bombing could be a reaction to the publication of blasphemous caricatures in Danish newspapers depicting Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
Interior Secretary Sayed Kamal Shah, who rushed to the spot immediately, did not rule out a suicide attack.
The blast came amid efforts by Pakistan’s new government to strike peace deals with militants in its regions bordering Afghanistan, a pursuit eyed warily by the US.
Pakistani officials condemned the blast but indicated they did not want to stop the talks.
The government has insisted it is not talking to “terrorists” but rather militants willing to lay down their weapons.
Foreign Secretary Suleiman Bashir visited the area and informed journalists that European countries have been assured of enhanced security and they are not shutting their missions in Pakistan.
Rehman Malik, adviser to the prime minister on interior affairs, said that a team has been constituted to investigate the Islamabad blast and results of preliminary investigations will be out in 24 hours.
Talking to reporters at the site of the explosion, Malik strongly condemned the bombing and said such terrorist acts were meant to tarnish the image of the Muslims.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen called the bombing “an attack against Denmark.” But he said Denmark would not be cowed by terrorists. “Denmark will not alter its policy because of a terror attack,” he told reporters in Copenhagen.
“We will not give in to terrorists. We will maintain the foreign and security policy line we have been leading.”
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the blast “a terrible terrorist attack.”
— With input from agencies
