ISLAMABAD, Oct 29: The opposition claimed in the Senate on Friday that all eyewitness accounts suggest a powerful bomb had exploded in the Marriott Hotel on Thursday night
and the government was deliberately trying to portray it as a short-circuit incident.
However, the government blamed the media for creating confusion about the incident and its ministers stuck to their earlier stated position that the explosion with a loud bang was caused by electrical short-circuiting in the hotel. The government also asked the opposition not to extract political mileage out of the incident and argue the case only on the basis of facts.
Challenging the government's version, leader of the Democratic Alliance in the Senate, Raza Rabbani said, if the version given by the ministers of interior and information were to be accepted, even then a number of questions about the incident remained unanswered.
An experienced lawyer, Mr Rabbani said circumstantial evidence suggested that there was no reporting of fire if the explosion occurred as a result of short-circuiting. If there was short-circuiting, Mr Rabbani said, the electricity of the hotel should have tripped.
"The hotel's electricity was on. Perhaps it was not short-circuiting," said Mr Rabbani. Questioning the veracity of statements issued immediately after the blast by the chief spokesperson of the government, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Mr Rabbani said the information minister claimed that no foreigner was injured in the incident but the US State Department had admitted that one of its embassy officials was injured in the incident.
Mr Rabbani said the blast took place in the hotel located in the top security zone of the capital close to the minister's enclave, the presidency and the prime minister's secretariat.
Arguing that the government should accept responsibility for lapse of security, Mr Rabbani said before the blast, sniffer dogs and army personnel were seen near the hotel suggesting that a VIP was expected there.
He said the government should take the entire nation into confidence and develop a consensus for the war against error instead of portraying if it was Gen Musharraf who was fighting the war on his own, all alone.
State Minister for Interior Dr Shahzad Waseem defended the earlier version given by the government and said a blast did take place in the hotel but the nature of the blast was different from that of a bomb explosion.
Dismissing the conspiracy theories that a bomb planted in a lap-top computer was exploded by a suicide bomber, the state minister said initial investigations ruled out the possibility of any sabotage.
Without answering the specific questions raised by Mr Rabbani about absence of fire or why the electricity did not go out in the hotel if the blast was caused by short-circuiting, Dr Shahzad said the electrical system installed at the entrance of the hotel developed faults which caused the short-circuiting.
The minister, while trying to explain the impact of the blast which was heard in a radius of upto three kilometres around the hotel, said the explosion was heard as the short-circuiting occurred in a closed space.
The minister said the people were injured because of glass splinters. Referring to initial media reports which claimed that a person had also died as a result of the bomb blast, the state minister said some elements in the media issued statements that created confusion about the entire situation.
Dr Shahzad said no deaths occurred as a result of the blast in which seven persons received injuries. He further said no trace of any bomb had been found from the site. Health Minister Nasir Khan also blamed the media and said the initial reporting by the private TV channels was not based on facts.
He also said no deaths had taken place as a result of the explosion. The minister said three foreigners were injured in the blast and one of them was immediately discharged after initial medical treatment.
