Massive blast in Islamabad

in the marriott hotel. 30 confirmed dead, may rise. supposedly a huge suicide blast. the 290 room hotel is fully gutted and may collapse. terrible scene

Farkin Hell.........

Lots of foreign tourists died the news channels say.

Anytime now PP will come in to blast Aussies for hypocrisy I suppose.

Not that I blame him, but we don't have suicide bombers ramming in truckload of explosives in India. Dangerous times indeed.

The One wrote:in the marriott hotel. 30 confirmed dead, may rise. supposedly a huge suicide blast. the 290 room hotel is fully gutted and may collapse. terrible scene

Powerful blast rocks Islamabad, 40 dead

It seems that a few American officials staying at the hotel were the main target.

trying to get some more news on it i went on pakpassion and that place is unbelievable. what a bunch of nut-cases

"Just because it was a suicide bomber, doesn't rule out that this was indian or american. You know, they provide funds to these terrorists, so you know where that leads to. They are not taking over the country slowly btw."

"As for the Taliban, yes they are bad people, but they are jst a tip of the iceberg. They are being funded by US and India. Everyone knows that, the security agencies know that, and yet, they still cant do anything."

and something more worrying

"The biggest suicide blast in the history of the country, in a red zone, during red alert. Shameful for the govt. THis is teh safest area in the country."

india just cleared its tour for pak next year. they may have to review it after this

I just heard in the news that their Rashtrapati bhavan and Prime Ministers' office is just next to the hotel and lot of politicians were in the city because PM was throwing an Iftaar Party and was there to address them as well.

It is frightening that the terrorists can penetrate heavy security,does it point to the fact that security has been infiltrated by the terrorists?,something the cricket teams were worried about.
I feel for the Pakistani people.It seems that the terrorists can strike at will.

No Cricket in Pakistan for another Decade.

If any American embassy member ends up killed, things can only get worse between the Yankies and their 'ally'......

Way things are going, it's just a matter of time before Yankies end up declaring war against Pak in the next few years one day.

RIP and condolences to the families of the victims!

Batman wrote:If any American embassy member ends up killed, things can only get worse between the Yankies and their 'ally'......

Way things are going, it's just a matter of time before Yankies end up declaring war against Pak in the next few years one day.

next few years? They had declared a war a long time ago, you didn't hear about how US has been entering the PAK border and killing innocent folks. There have been at least half a dozen attacks in the last 2 weeks alone.

Batman wrote:Lots of foreign tourists died the news channels say.

Anytime now PP will come in to blast Aussies for hypocrisy I suppose.

Not that I blame him, but we don't have suicide bombers ramming in truckload of explosives in India. Dangerous times indeed.

I will talk about that when i come back, i am sure we can wait for a few days

For now i totally agree with what TO said on the other thread

The One wrote:i would be surprised if the tour is called off, the aussie a team has decided to continue with their tour and there have been no attacks on western targets in india

also, can people have some respect. 20 people have died and this is a serious issue affecting most countries, stop trying to score cheap points on the thread. i wonder how much humour was at show after the bali or london bombings

PlanetPakistan wrote:RIP and condolences to the families of the victims!

Batman wrote:If any American embassy member ends up killed, things can only get worse between the Yankies and their 'ally'......

Way things are going, it's just a matter of time before Yankies end up declaring war against Pak in the next few years one day.

next few years? They had declared a war a long time ago, you didn't hear about how US has been entering the PAK border and killing innocent folks. There have been at least half a dozen attacks in the last 2 weeks alone.

My reference was not to border skirmishes that is testing the patience levels between the US and Pak troops. I am expecting a full scale assault Iraq and Afghanistan style on Pak one day.

Ironically Pakistan's future progress rests completely with India. Whether your rulers realize this or not. They encouraged militancy to bleed India. Now the viper is bleeing them back as well. The root cause of all problems lies between Indo-Pak bitterness and only when the 2 Govt.s realize that they were once the same nation and work together to eradicate terrorism can Pakistan be free from this demon. Unfortunately using militancy against India is still a foreign policy Pak rulers have not abandoned and only when ISI is reined in and Pak works closely with India in a combined fight to eradicate militants that use Pak as a base can this nightmare end. Pak needs to stop providing safe havens for militants against India, hand over militants leading the likes of LeT, Hizbul, Jaish, Dawood etc. and undertake serious army to army confidence building measures with India.

I think Pak will bleed for at least a decade and a half more before it's rulers come to it's complete senses. Hope by then either USA has not bombed them out of existance or they are not caught in another era of military dictatorship.

Pak can only now redeem it's future with India at it's side and not against India. There is no way they can now continue to use militants to bleed India on one hand and prevent them from doing the same to your own people.

Well there is no way the Windies will tour Pakistan now. The senior players didn't want to go anyway, but the youngsters will refuse now as well.

Nasty business. Very sad for their people and a major blow for cricket followers in the country.

DJ_Smerk wrote:No Cricket in Pakistan for another Decade.

The way things are going after ten years there may not be an entity named Pakistan.

Unfortunately this terrible menace will get worst before more within revolt and reform.

Pakistan's problems are not unique. It is brought out by religious insecurities. It manifests in many ways across the World mostly in the middle east these days. In the case of Pakistan the Indo-Pak tensions is one way this manifests itself, at other times it is vented against the Jews, US, Danish Cartoons etc.

Needs a deep look within objectively with a view to reforming. This won't happen passively that much I am sure.

One of the TV services in Aus this morning was saying the Marriott was the hotel booked for the Aussie team during the Champions trophy. Anyone able to confirm this?

As for any assurance of safety of touring players from the PCB, the guards dicking around on the security footage shown today buries that theory.

There is a thread on this in Pak Passion which argues the Aussies were to stay in another motel at Rawalpindi. I don't think it matters. What this blast and the Bhutto assasination have proven is that no place is really safe in pakistan at the moment.

As a result of this bomb BA have cancelled all their flights into Pakistan and last night the Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan was kidnapped. The place id descending into total chaos, Cricket is likely to be the least of their priorities at the moment.

And yet the Asian Bloc refused to move the venue of the Champions Trophy and only 'delayed' it. What a bunch of weak qunts.

Nasty video.

Poor barstewards milling around the truck. They will be lucky to find any atoms of those poor sods.

skully wrote:Nasty video.

Poor barstewards milling around the truck. They will be lucky to find any atoms of those poor sods.

There would have been at least twice as many deaths had it NOT been for their bravery!

Zat wrote:One of the TV services in Aus this morning was saying the Marriott was the hotel booked for the Aussie team during the Champions trophy. Anyone able to confirm this?

As for any assurance of safety of touring players from the PCB, the guards dicking around on the security footage shown today buries that theory.

Josh Carney wrote:There is a thread on this in Pak Passion which argues the Aussies were to stay in another motel at Rawalpindi. I don't think it matters. What this blast and the Bhutto assasination have proven is that no place is really safe in pakistan at the moment.

As a result of this bomb BA have cancelled all their flights into Pakistan and last night the Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan was kidnapped. The place id descending into total chaos, Cricket is likely to be the least of their priorities at the moment.

Both are incorrect because NONE of the matches were suppose to be played in Rawalpindi or Islamabad but yes in hindsight its good that the CT was canceled.

Speaking of 911 Pakistan must stop those mega operations in NWFP ASAP.

They can stop the NWFP operatoins but how can they stop the Crazed Talibanis taking over Peshawar and moving further eastwards. Those guys have said that they can take over Karachi if they wanted. The underlying problem is extremely grave and complicated.

Yep, cricket should be of least priority for everybody in Pak.