Pakistan

Dinner plan switch saved president and PM

Article published on the 2008-09-22 Latest update 2008-09-22 15:13 TU

Video still of the truck bomb at the Marriott's gates.
(Photo : Reuters)

Pakistan’s new president and prime minister were scheduled to have dinner with other senior officials at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad when it was bombed, but they were saved by a last-minute venue change, the interior ministry said Monday.

Newly elected President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and military chiefs had planned to dine together at the Marriott after Zardari gave his inaugural address Saturday. The location of the meal was switched at the last minute to the prime minister’s residence, an interior ministry official told reporters.

In Pakistan, politicians and journalists are asking questions about why the president and prime minister didn’t warn others, if they were indeed tipped off about the impending bombing, reports correspondent Omar Waraich.

“We will have to see how much they did know about this, whether the decision was based on personal security reasons, [and if that was why] the leaders shouldn’t venture into the Marriott,” Waraich told RFI.

In the speech only hours before the bombing occurred, Zardari said he would make fighting terrorism a priority.

As Zardari prepares to meet with US President George W Bush in New York on Tuesday, tensions between the two countries flared.

On Monday morning, Pakistani forces twice forced two American helicopters to turn back at the border by firing into the air, a military official said. The border forces spotted two American gunships, and fired warning shots as they crossed into Pakistani airspace, forcing them to turn back, the official told the AFP news agency.

American forces stationed in Afghanistan have been flying missions across the border in Pakistan, targeting militants who stage attacks from the tribal Waziristan region. Pakistani forces fired on US gunships on 15 September in a similar incident. The United States continues to fire missiles across the border almost daily.

Also in Pakistan Monday, unidentified gunmen attacked a car transporting an Afghan consul in Peshawar. The diplomat’s driver was killed, and his fate remains unknown.