Posted on 08/07/2002 7:10:31 PM PDT by knighthawk
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan believes three men who blew themselves up with grenades after fleeing a checkpoint in Pakistani Kashmir were responsible for the deadly attack on a Christian school that killed six people, a senior official said Wednesday.
``The way they were running to escape ... we suspect that they were the killers of six innocent people,'' Information Minister Nisar Memon said.
Memon said, however, that the Interior Ministry, which supervises law enforcement in Pakistan, has not yet formally concluded the men were responsible for the Monday attack on the Murree Christian School.
None of the school's 150 students, who include Americans, Australians, Europeans and New Zealanders, was injured. All those killed in the attack were Pakistanis — two security guards, a receptionist, a cook, a carpenter, and a bystander.
A day after the attack, police in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir stopped three men on a road near Dherkot about 25 miles northeast of Murree for a routine check.
Officers overpowered one of the men when he resisted a search him, and found a grenade, regional police commander Moravet Shah said Wednesday.
Two companions then pulled out four grenades and threatened to explode them if police did not let all the men go. They did, and the men ran to the nearby Jhelum River. The current made crossing impossible, and the men sat on a boulder, holding the grenades.
They talked with residents for several hours, Shah said.
``We have no enmity with Muslims. Our targets are only Americans and nonbelievers,'' Shah said the men told village witnesses. The men admitted launching the assault on the Christian school, Shah said.
They also said there were several other groups like them ``who plan to carry out similar attacks on Americans and you will soon hear about it,'' Shah said.
The men said they were from Karachi, a southern city that has been the site of numerous recent attacks against Westerners and Western interests. Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in January in Karachi and later murdered. On May 8, a bomb exploded in front of a Karachi hotel, killing 11 French engineers and three Pakistanis. Another explosion killed 12 Pakistanis outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi on June 14.
A villager in Dherkot who said he was a native of Karachi asked the men to surrender, but they refused, and threatened to kill anyone who got near them, Shah said.
The three then huddled together on the boulder and discussed something before placing the grenades under their feet. The grenades exploded, sending two of the men up into the air and then into the river, where they disappeared. The body of the third man was found lying on the river bank.
Witnesses to the school attack identified the recovered body as that of one of the assailants, Shah said. He did not say who the witnesses were.
Near the Murree school, police recovered grenades, knives and ammunition abandoned by the gunmen. A note found at the scene warned that attackers ``will do more in the future to avenge what is being done by infidels with Muslims all over the world,'' according to a Pakistani military intelligence officer who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The school, which has been temporarily closed, was founded in 1956 to educate children of missionaries in South Asia. It had shut down soon after the Sept. 11 attacks but reopened in February. The school is located near Murree, a resort town in the Himalayan foothills about 35 miles northeast of the capital, Islamabad.
'Only' Americans and unbelievers? That's just 'only' about 4/5 of the world.
'Surely this is what they mean by saying that islam is peace'-list
If people want on or off this list, please let me know.
Where are the absolutes here? What can be done?
He got tailpipe burns on his mouth.
Of course not, and I hope they aren't killed for witnessing in present day Muslim Pakistan. Who deserves our scorn? The teachers in the countless madrassas, paid for by Pakistani and Saudi money, that take in poor Pakistani boys and train them to be mindless jihadists. They have sent numerous of these boys into Afghanistan to fight the infidels/non-muslims. Face it, there is a serious problem.
For instance, can you imagine if a bunch of Southern Baptist Churchs all starting preaching "kill the unbelievers!" and spread out into three or more continents, killing innocent people as they went? I can tell you as a Southern Baptist that this wouldn't happen. We'd jump all over any such idiots. Islam has to address the problem and police those who call themselves Muslims and do these things. Do you understand that it is intolerable?
Who deserves our scorn? The teachers in the countless madrassas, paid for by Pakistani and Saudi money, that take in poor Pakistani boys and train them to be mindless jihadists.Exactly, the infrastructure needs to be overhauled.
They have sent numerous of these boys into Afghanistan to fight the infidels/non-muslims.Which I saw no problem with long as they were after Soviet ass.
Islam has to address the problem and police those who call themselves Muslims and do these things.That won't work. It needs to be the individual states to address this issue within their individual borders.
Do you understand that it is intolerable?No doubt! Maybe I've seen terror all through my childhood and regard it more as a technical problem, a train derailing, or a plane crash. Maybe that makes you think that I'm indifferent..
I was referring to the ones sent in October, 2001. Many of them returned home.
That won't work. It needs to be the individual states to address this issue within their individual borders.
Unfortunately, there was only one Kemal Ataturk. Where the other new leaders will come from, I don't know.
No doubt! Maybe I've seen terror all through my childhood and regard it more as a technical problem, a train derailing, or a plane crash. Maybe that makes you think that I'm indifferent..
I don't think that you're indifferent at at all. In fact, you're the only Muslim that I know of to have a rational discussion with. The internet Islamic websites are off-the-wall, to put it mildly.
I'm sorry to read about your childhood experiences. You should try running from tornadoes and floods in Texas. :)
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