May 9, 2003	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 6, 1424

PARIS, May 8: A special ceremony was held here on Thursday to mark the first anniversary of the terrorist attack in Karachi against a busload of employees of the French naval construction directorate. Eleven of the employees were killed in the attack.

At the ceremony, families of four of the victims let it be known that they were pursuing a lawsuit against the directorate, in which they charge the French governmental agency (which is shortly scheduled to undergo privatization) with not taking sufficient means to protect the employees.

According to Sandra Leclerc, the daughter of one of the engineers who was killed in Karachi and who is engaged in the lawsuit, “we’re astounded how DCN didn’t take any more seriously the terrorist threat with which our parents were faced working in Karachi. As far as I’m concerned, if my father died because of this, then he died for nothing.”