May 9, 2002	Thursday	Safar 25, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, May 8: The government has not ruled out the possibility of Al Qaeda’s involvement in Wednesday’s suicide attack in Karachi, senior interior ministry officials informed Dawn.

“The attack has all the markings of a well-trained international terrorist organization,” Federal Interior Secretary Tasnim Noorani said, adding that “this kind of operation is not carried out by the terrorist organizations operating within the country.”

Intelligence reports, senior interior ministry officials said, had warned that some 300 suicide bombers with Al Qaeda and Taliban links would be unleashed in May in a new offensive against the US interests and its allies around the world.

Sources said most of the terrorist cells of the Taliban and Al Qaeda network had the capability to be activated at short notice and most of them had spread their tentacles away from the main theatre of war in Afghanistan.

The threat of Al Qaeda activists to infiltrate into target countries and conduct suicide attacks against Western targets and critical infrastructure was grave, they said, adding that Pakistan was a target country for being a partner in the US-led war against terrorism.

Pakistan is facing the new emerging threat of suicide bombings as a consequence of war on terrorism with the possibility that such acts would increase in frequency against what are dubbed as “soft targets” by the law enforcement agencies.

Suspecting that the attack might have a Taliban or Al Qaeda link, Federal Information Minister Nisar Memon said at a news conference that the government had decided to strengthen the country’s western border with Afghanistan to reinforce vigilance against any infiltrations from across the border.

Already, some 60,000 regular troops are deployed on the country’s porous border with Afghanistan.

Citing examples of the involvement of international terrorist organizations in carrying out suicide bombings in the country, the sources said suspects for the Nov 19, 1995 attack on Egyptian embassy had been rounded up from a refugee camp in Pakistan run by Afghan leader Abd al-Rasul Sayyaf.

About the progress of investigations into the suicide attack on the Protestant International Church in Islamabad on March 17 this year, the interior secretary said that the unclaimed body remained unidentified and the country had sought international assistance for investigations. Five people, including the suicide bomber, perished in the attack, which left 40 injured. However, no group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

The sources said the suicide attack in Karachi was the second of a series during the year and the third during the recent past.

“The attack in Karachi is an eye-opener that the threat of suicide bombers is now a reality and a new emerging trend,” said Brig Mateen, acting head of the National Crisis Management Cell of the interior ministry.

About the attack in Karachi, the sources said the way the car had driven into the bus and blown up, it was sure there had been a suicide bomber in the car.