ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The chief of the Pakistani Army appointed a new head of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence, the nation's top spy organization, Tuesday in a move that consolidated his control over crucial espionage activities.

The new spy chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, has experience as a commander in United Nations peacekeeping and counter-insurgency operations, according to a Pakistani expert in military affairs. He replaced Lt. Gen. Nadeem Taj.

The appointment of General Pasha was made by Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who became head of the army last November when President Pervez Musharraf stepped down from his military role. Mr. Musharraf resigned in August under threats of impeachment.

General Kayani has been deliberately making his mark on the army, and Tuesday's announcement of the new spy chief, along with the appointments of five new senior generals, was another sign of his remaking of the top echelon of the military, traditionally Pakistan's elite institution.

For the last two years, General Pasha was in charge of security operations in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan where Al Qaeda and the Taliban have gained virtual control.

American Special Forces recently crossed from Afghanistan into Waziristan in the tribal area on a raid against Al Qaeda insurgents. The operation sparked a public repudiation of Washington from General Kayani as a breach of Pakistani sovereignty.

As head of the intelligence agency, General Pasha will be dealing directly with the Central Intelligence Agency about Washington's concerns over Taliban and Al Qaeda forces staging attacks against American troops in Afghanistan.

The appointment of General Pasha comes two months after the new civilian government tried but failed to wrest control of the spy agency from the army, which has always run it.

General Kayani's announcement reaffirmed the military's institutional control of the I.S.I., the English-language newspaper Dawn said in Tuesday's edition.

The New York Times

Suicide attacks have killed nearly 1,200 people in Pakistan since July 2007, most of them civilians, according to military statistics Monday that underscored the ferocity of the threat facing the U.S. ally in the war on extremist groups.

Meanwhile, heavy fighting between Pakistani troops and insurgents in the lawless tribal regions of the country's northwest has caused some 20,000 Pakistanis to flee across the border into Afghanistan, the United Nations said.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan has seen a surge in attacks by Islamic extremists since the July 2007 army attack on militants holed up in Islamabad's radical Red Mosque, during which about 100 people were killed.

The most recent major suicide attack was the Sept. 20 truck bombing at the Marriott Hotel in the capital, which killed at least 54 people, including three Americans.

Figures released at a military briefing Monday said 88 suicide attacks had taken place across Pakistan since the Red Mosque siege, killing 1,188 people. Of those, 847 were civilians and 341 were troops or police. More than 3,000 people were wounded.

The statistics also said 1,368 security force personnel had been killed since late 2001, when Pakistan's former military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, allied with Washington in the war against terrorist movements after the Sept. 11 attack on the United States.

Pakistan cites such figures in part to deflect American skepticism of its commitment to the fight against Islamic militants amid lingering suspicion that elements within the country's intelligence agencies maintain links with extremists.

Under U.S. pressure, Pakistan launched a military offensive in the Bajur tribal region in early August against Taliban and al-Qaida militants blamed for rising violence both in Pakistan and in Afghanistan. Fierce fighting has raged in the area ever since.

“In the last two weeks alone, over 600 Pakistani families (around 20,000 people) have fled into Afghanistan,” the U.N. refugee agency said Monday. “While the vast majority of them are living with their relatives and friends, there are already some 200 families who live in the open air.”

The refugees have gone to Afghanistan's Kunar province, which is itself plagued by fighting between Islamic militants and Afghan troops backed by U.S.-led coalition forces.

Pakistani officials estimate the fighting in Bajur has displaced as many as 500,000 people who have sought refuge elsewhere within Pakistan. Most have been taken in by relatives across northwestern Pakistan, though about 100,000 are living in camps.

In the latest fighting in the frontier region, troops repelled an overnight attack on an army camp just north of Khar, Bajur's main town, killing up to 15 militants, two officials said. They provided no word of casualties on the government side.

Poor access and a lack of security in Bajur prevents reporters from verifying casualty reports.

Also near Khar, eight tribesmen and three militants died in a gunbattle, government official Fazal Rabbi said. He provided no more details on the clash, but the army has been reported trying to enlist local support against insurgents.

Bajur is the most northerly of Pakistan's tribal regions, several of which have largely fallen under the control of militants opposed to the Afghan and Pakistani governments.

U.S. and NATO commanders say militant groups use the tribal areas as safe havens for preparing attacks in Afghanistan, which is increasingly violent seven years after a U.S.-led offensive toppled its Taliban regime. The area is believed to be a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders.

Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, the top U.S. commander in eastern Afghanistan, told The Associated Press last week that he was encouraged by Pakistan's offensive in Bajur, but hadn't yet seen a drop in the number of militants crossing the border.

“We need a persistent series of operations by Pakistan over a lengthier period of time before we see a change there,” Schloesser said.

Pakistan's army claims to have killed more than 1,000 militants in the Bajur offensive while losing 69 troops since August. It has declined to estimate casualties among civilians.

Yahoo News

CHOICES have consequences and the choices that Pakistan is going to make today will have either positive or catastrophic consequences for the coming generations.

Let us hope and pray that despite incredible pressure from those who are determined to destroy Pakistan for working with the West to root out terrorism, and paradoxically, from the West for "not doing enough', Pakistan is able to get through this tremendously challenging time without any damage to the country.

However, if we as a nation are determined to succeed in the future, it is critical that we as a country must not forget our mistakes.

Regretfully, when unelected officials opted to involve Pakistan in the fight between the Soviet Union and the United States, Pakistan became the central hub of training for activists and militants who were driven by religious fervour to fight the communists. These activists and militants were recruited and trained in the name of religion from around the globe. In this process, nobody even considered the possibility of a religious fight against communism becoming a global threat, once the short-term goal of defeating the Soviet Union was achieved.

More importantly, and rather ironically, the decision makers in Pakistan utterly failed to understand that by fighting for one particular ideology, sooner or later Pakistan itself could become what Afghanistan was in the seventies and eighties: an international battleground where proponents of two very different ideologies would wage an intense war and subsequently, one or perhaps both sides would rely on increasingly brutal tactics to achieve victory. Hence the nuisance of terrorism for Pakistan.

According to a report by one agency in Pakistan, the country has suffered about 30 suicide attacks between January through September 2008, killing over 500 innocent civilians and critically wounding about 800. This terribly saddening report becomes even more depressing when we learn that Pakistan has been the target of more terrorist attacks than Iraq and Afghanistan, two countries where an all-out war is being waged. And yet, as cruel as it sounds, to the dismay of those who are suffering these daily bombings, astonishingly, Pakistan is blamed for not being a serious partner in the fight against terrorism.

Please, at least give Pakistan a break, if it can't get credit for all it has done so far.Before the devastating attack in Islamabad that destroyed the Marriott hotel and killed over 60 people, pundits in Washington, New York and London routinely and unnecessarily criticised Islamabad for not "taking on the terrorists'. While sitting in comfortable and safe studios, these so-called experts regularly pointed fingers at Pakistan for not doing enough, even though Pakistan was taking casualties day after day.

To support their unsubstantiated theories, these studio experts exclusively relied on statistics and computer-generated charts, but they failed to take into account the ground realities. Their analysis, with few exceptions, was superficial at best. Worst, this instant analysis was driven by the necessity of compressing complex issues into 30- or 40-second sound bites, and this practice perpetuated the myth of Islamabad being complicit in terrorism, an outrageous fabrication completely debunked by the number of deaths that Pakistan has endured, both on the battlefield against the terrorists and by civilians across Pakistan.

No country, government and society is perfect, and Pakistan is no exception, but historians looking objectively at the evidence relating to the contribution made by Pakistan since the late seventies would have to conclude that Pakistan has done more than most countries when it came to defeating the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and now in the global fight against religious militarism.

Given Pakistan's record, it is absolutely safe to assume that Pakistan will continue to do whatever it has to do to save itself and the rest of the world from the nihilists. There shouldn't be any doubts about Pakistan's resolve to defend its culture, its heritage and its future. Therefore, it is both important, and wise that allied forces don't make this fight more complicated by invading Pakistan's territory.

Collaboration, not unilateralism, is the key to success, if we look at the recent war history, either in Afghanistan or in Iraq.

It is also worth noting that bombs and missiles alone won't be enough to win this fight. We also need schools, roads, hospitals, electricity, clean running water, a vibrant and growing economy that creates jobs, and for this to happen, the international community has to come forward with generous non-military aid. If the rest of the world is interested in seeing Pakistan emerge victorious and triumphant in the long and difficult war against terror, they should ask Pakistan what they can do to help, not lecture Islamabad about how to run its affairs.

Instead of pressuring Islamabad to fight day and night, the rest of the world should assist the government in developing and implementing a comprehensive strategy to combat social and economic challenges as well.

Leaving aside those who insist that dark and gloomy days are ahead for Pakistan, it is obvious that despite all that is going on in Pakistan, remarkably, the political leadership, or at least those who were elected in the last election, are demonstrating incredible maturity. Instead of denigrating each other now that they are no longer allies, Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari treat each other with respect and deference.

After losing the presidential election, Nawaz Sharif personally went to congratulate Asif Zardari, a supremely democratic gesture that made every Pakistani proud. These developments and more importantly, these gestures of cooperation and mutual respect, are crucial because the country cannot afford another political crisis. Fortunately, the nation is coming together to save itself from the negative forces bent on destroying national confidence by carrying out vicious attacks.

Despite the threat of terrorism, Pakistan is on the recovery path because of the thriving democracy in the country. For decades, the people of Pakistan have survived without any help from their government. The wheel of commerce has been in motion even when the business environment was not hospitable. The people of Pakistan are tough, and they have proved their resilience over the years despite coups, military rule and other challenges that tested Pakistan as a nation, and it is safe to assume that the country is not ready to give up on itself or its future.

bilalqureshi32@gmail.com

NEW YORK, Sept 26: Pakistan immediately needs $10-to-15 billion to deal with the current economic crisis, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir told a briefing in New York.

Mr Bashir, who participated in the inaugural meeting of the Friends of Pakistan group, said the new government was aware of the economic challenges facing the country and was taking steps to cope with them "$10 to 15 billion is our immediate requirement," he said.

The foreign secretary said the World Bank had agreed to release $500 million while others also had offered to help.

The European Union, he said, was stepping in to support food and economic stabilisation programmes.

The secretary was responding to a host of questions from a group of Pakistani journalists who were upset that the Friends of Pakistan forum made no concrete commitment about financial assistance.

The journalists referred to reports in the US media that Pakistan immediately needs $10 billion to avoid bankruptcy but the government seemed oblivious to the threat of an economic meltdown. Mr Bashir disagreed with the suggestion. "We know that we do need some immediate fusions in terms of foreign exchange requirements," he said.

Mr Bashir said the group also acknowledged the problem and details were being worked out with the countries individually and collectively.

"This is a multi-track, across-the-board process in a number of areas, covering strategic, political and economic issues," he added.

Mr Bashir, however, made it clear that Pakistan was not seeking yet another donor-recipient partnership to deal with the economic crisis.

Instead, it was focusing on developing a more comprehensive approach that would enable the country also to develop its own resources.

"The important message that we got from this meeting was that we will address all short-, medium- and long-term issues," the foreign secretary said.

Mr Bashir said the Friends of Pakistan group was meant as the beginning of a process that would be much more than a donor conference.

"There are international and regional responsibilities for the situation Pakistan faces today and we want the international community to recognise its responsibilities," he said.

"If they want to see a successful conclusion (of the war against terror), then Pakistan's development capacity has to be enhanced."

Dawn

Pakistan sought to reassure Washington on Friday that it remained an ally in fighting terrorism, but it also warned the U.S. to stay out of Pakistani territory while hunting down militants along the volatile border with Afghanistan.

Emphasizing that it doesn't need American firepower, a Pakistani general said an offensive along the frontier has killed more than 1,000 militants and predicted the region would be “stabilized” within two months.

He also showed photos of militant tunnel systems and trenches in Bajur, suggesting more tough fighting ahead in an area that is considered a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders.

Washington has launched a flurry of missiles and a ground assault on targets within Pakistan recently, infuriating ordinary Pakistanis and their leaders.

In the first serious exchange with Pakistani forces acknowledged by the U.S., American helicopters and Pakistani ground troops briefly traded fire Thursday on the border. The aircraft were not hit and no one was hurt.

U.S. officials said the two choppers were inside Afghanistan when the troops opened fire. Pakistan insisted the aircraft had crossed the ill-defined and contested border.

Pakistani government spokesman Akram Shaheedi urged U.S.-led coalition forces “not to violate (the) territorial sovereignty of Pakistan as it is counterproductive to the war on terror.”

“It has been Pakistan's policy that we will not allow anyone to violate our sovereignty, and we will continue to defend our territorial sovereignty,” he said.

President Asif Ali Zardari addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday and warned that Pakistan cannot allow its territory to “be violated by our friends.” But he struck a more conciliatory note Friday at a brief appearance alongside Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

“I look at U.S. support as a blessing. I look at the world support as a blessing to Pakistan,” Zardari said.

Rice did not answer when asked about the border clash, but expressed unwavering U.S. support for Pakistan.

“We know that Pakistan has many challenges in security, in the economy, and in bringing stability to this young democracy,” she said. “But we hope that the president and Pakistani people were assured today that the international community will be by their side as they take difficult decisions and move toward a more stable and prosperous Pakistan.”

Analysts said while the incident had added to tensions, there was little chance it would herald a wider breakdown, noting that both parties needed each other.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Washington that Pakistani military leaders have reassured him they have no intention of using force against U.S. troops along the border.

Mullen said he received the reassurance last week while visiting Pakistan. He said he has no reason to believe the relationship has changed because of Thursday's incident.

“I am hard-pressed to see a set of circumstances where there would be any kind of sustained fight between two allies,” he said.

The U.S. and NATO sends fuel and other supplies through Pakistan to its troops in Afghanistan, while Pakistan requires help from the U.S. and other Western powers to pull out of a crippling economic crisis.

Thursday's clash drew praise from fiercely anti-American tribesman.

“Pakistan should have reacted against the Americans like this earlier,” said Mushtaq Khan. “They started late, but still it is a welcome step.”

Sarwar Shah, a 45-year-old bus driver who witnessed the incident, said he was happy to see the Pakistan army firing at the helicopters. “If the army needs our help, we will help it against the Americans,” Shah said.

Pakistani officials have long warned that unilateral U.S. actions in the tribal zone risk alienating residents whose cooperation they need in battling the insurgents.

“These incursions strengthen the hands of the militants, that is the result of this,” said Talat Masood, a military and political analyst. “You don't want to strengthen them, you want to weaken them.”

Pakistan has cited its offensive in the northwestern Bajur border region as an example of its commitment to rooting out extremists there.

Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan told reporters on an army-organized trip to the area Friday “that the consensus is that more than 1,000″ militants had been killed since operations began in early August, including “seven or eight renowned Taliban commanders” as well as Arab and Uzbek fighters. He said 63 troops have died and 212 were wounded.

“My timeframe for Bajur is anything from between 1 1/2 to two months to bring about stability,” Khan said.

Military officials paraded 10 blindfolded and handcuffed men said to be Taliban fighters arrested in the operation.

One said he was innocent, adding that he was picked up because he looked like a militant.

“I was on my way to my madrassah and … they arrested me,” said the man, who identified himself as Shah Khalid. “They didn't find any weapons with me, they just arrested me because of my hair.”

The raid in Karachi targeted militants believed to be part of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an extremist group linked to al-Qaida. Police said a tip from a captured member of the group led security forces to the house.

The militants were suspected of planning an attack on a “high-profile” target in the city, said Sindh Police Chief Babar Khattak.

Officers seized at least 22 pounds of explosives, two suicide jackets, seven pistols and 12 grenades from the house.

Violence across Pakistan showed no sign of letting up following last weekend's truck bombing of the Hotel Marriott in Islamabad that killed 53 people.

Police raided a militant safehouse in Karachi, sparking a gunfight in which three extremists either blew themselves up or were shot.

A handcuffed man held captive and identified as a supplier of fuel and goods to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan also died, said senior police official Aleem Jaffry.

Yahoo News

It is neither appropriate nor polite to tell someone that he/she is ugly. Similarly, it is equally offensive to tell someone that he/she is gorgeous, even if the intent is complimentary. So, it was absolutely shocking, no other word to describe it, shocking, to hear Mr. Zardari tell Sarah Palin, John McCain's running mate that she is gorgeous, oooops!
 
Dude, even I know this is inappropriate!!!
 
I wish, I really do that our leaders go through training before they embark on international trips because if we are interested in being taken seriously, then we must know how to speak, and when we do speak, we should also know what to say, and more importantly, what not to say. With very very few exceptions, professional women (read working women) don't appreciate comments about their looks or their attire, and there is no reason to make personal comments for an official towards another official. A statment like this is just stupid and idiotic.
 
It reminded me of another star from Pakistan, Gillani,  who while visiting CFR here in the U.S. kept on saying Pakistan Army is the best in the world, without providing any evidence to support his statement. We thought he was dumb, but after Zardari's gaff, they are tied at 1 each.

Bilal Qureshi

bilalqureshi32@gmai.com

WASHINGTON ‚ Pakistani and American ground troops exchanged fire along the border with Afghanistan on Thursday after the Pakistanis shot at two American helicopters, ratcheting up tensions as the United States increases its attacks against Qaeda and Taliban militants sheltering in Pakistan's restive tribal areas.

The two American OH-58 Kiowa reconnaissance helicopters were not damaged and no casualties were reported on either side from the ground fire. But American and Pakistani officials agreed on little else about what happened in the fleeting mid-afternoon clash between the allied troops.

American and NATO officials said that the two helicopters were flying about one mile inside Afghan air space to protect an American and Afghan patrol on the ground when the aircraft were fired on by small-caliber arms fire from a Pakistani military checkpoint near Tanai district in Khost Province.

In response, the American ground troops shot short bursts of warning fire, which hit well shy of the rocky, hilltop checkpoint, and the Pakistanis fired back, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a spokesman for the Central Command.

But a spokesman for the Pakistani army, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, said Pakistani forces fired warning shots at the American aircraft after they crossed into Pakistan's territory in the area of Saidgai, in North Waziristan's Ghulam Khan region. "On this, the helicopters returned fire and flew back," General Abbas said.

Local residents said that one of the two helicopters had entered inside Pakistan territory by about a mile, while the other hovered on the Afghan side of the border.

"When our forces fired warning shots, we were a little scared of a possible retaliatory fire from the helicopters," said one of the residents, Haji Said Rehman Gorbaz. "But we were happy to see the helicopter flying back into Afghanistan. We were happy that our forces fired at the helicopter."

The Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, said Thursday that his nation's military had fired only flares at the helicopters, seeming to draw a distinction with warning "shots," which usually refers to bullets or other ordnance that could more seriously damage the helicopters.

"They are flares," Mr. Zardari said as he sat down to meet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

"They are flares just to make sure that they know they have crossed the borderline," he added, noting that the Afghan-Pakistan frontier is a rugged, ill-marked division between the two nations.

"Sometimes the border is so mixed that they don't realize that they crossed the border," Mr. Zardari said.

Ms. Rice agreed that the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is "very, very unclear," and "one of the most inhospitable places."

But the clash drew immediate protest from Pentagon officials in Washington. "The flight path of the helicopters at no point took them over Pakistan," a Pentagon spokesman, Bryan Whitman, told reporters at a briefing.

Mr. Whitman said United States and NATO military officials were speaking to their Pakistani counterparts to determine what happened and to ensure there was no repeat, adding: "The Pakistanis have to provide us with a better understanding of why this took place."

General Abbas, the Pakistani spokesman, said the incident had been reported to NATO headquarters in Kabul and was under investigation by both Pakistani and NATO officials.

Although the incident lasted just a few minutes, military officials and diplomats said the brief clash showed there was a risk of a much more serious, and lethal, misunderstanding along the border.

Pakistani civilian leaders have denounced an incursion by American Special Operations forces into Pakistan on Sept. 3, which was authorized under orders given by President Bush in July, and the Pakistani Army has vowed to defend its border "at all costs."

"We will not tolerate any act against our sovereignty and integrity in the name of the war against terrorism," Pakistan's prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, told reporters on Wednesday. "We are fighting extremism and terror not for any other country, but our own country."

The latest clash on Thursday comes after a week of claims by Pakistani intelligence officials that American helicopters had strayed across the border from Pakistan, and that an American pilotless surveillance aircraft had crashed, apparently due to mechanical failure, on Pakistani territory.

American officials denied these claims, saying they were being manufactured by Pakistani officials in response to rising anti-American sentiment in Pakistan following the increased American activities in the border area.

The New York Times

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani officials said Saturday's suicide blast that killed 53 people at the Islamabad Marriott Hotel bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda and showed how the group was operating freely inside Pakistan and was determined to wreak havoc on the nation's already weak economy.
At least 50 were killed in a suspected suicide bomb attack on the luxury Marriott Hotel in the center of Pakistan's capital. Video courtesy of Reuters. (Sept. 20)
Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, said Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, an outlawed militant umbrella group operating from Pakistan's lawless tribal region, was involved in the attack. The group is said to be closely linked with al Qaeda, which has grown in strength in Pakistan. Many other Pakistani militant groups have mutated into small cells, after being banned, and work as an extension of al Qaeda.
Officials said Pakistan Taliban Movement, a little-known Islamist militant outfit that claimed responsibility to private television channels, was one such cell and is part of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan network.
Yousuf Raza Gilani, the prime minister, said the bomber had attacked the hotel only after tight security prevented him from reaching Parliament or the prime minister's office. “The purpose was to destabilize democracy,” Mr. Gilani told reporters Sunday. “They want to destroy us economically.”
Pakistan's economy already is suffering and the blast at a hotel that was popular with foreign visitors and well-heeled Pakistanis could accelerate capital flight and further discourage investors.
Among the dead were the Czech ambassador to Pakistan, Ivo Zdarek, 47 years old, and two members of the U.S. armed forces who the U.S. Defense Department said were assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.
“The Islamabad bombing dents the already low confidence of international investors in Pakistan,” said Muddassar Malik, chief executive of BMA Capital, a securities firm in Karachi.
Rescue teams searched the blackened hotel room by room Sunday. But the temperatures remained high and fires were still being put out in some parts. A senior official said there could still be bodies inside.
Some 250 people were injured in the blast by a suicide bomber who rammed an explosive-laden truck into the hotel's outer gates.
Many of the guests staying in the hotel died of intense heat caused by the explosion and flaming gas from ruptured gas lines. Doctors at the city's main hospital said the death toll could rise.
View Slideshow

Associated Press
A view of the destruction caused by the bomb explosion.
President Asif Ali Zardari said the attack wouldn't deter Pakistan from fighting terrorism. “The terrorists have turned the happy moment of the restoration of democracy into grief,” he said in a television address early Sunday before leaving for the United Nations in New York, where he will meet President George W. Bush.
It wouldn't be the first time al Qaeda has been involved in an attack in Pakistan's capital. In June, a suicide car bomber killed at least six people near the Danish embassy in Islamabad. A statement attributed to al Qaeda took responsibility for that blast, which was believed to have targeted Denmark because of the publication there of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
The latest attack came as Pakistani forces stepped up an operation against Islamist militants in the Bajur tribal region, which is viewed by Pakistani and Western intelligence agencies as the center of al Qaeda activities. Many observers suspect the Marriott attack was a retaliation to the military offensive.
Al Qaeda and its allies among tribal militants have repeatedly warned they will increase attacks in Pakistan's heartland if the military operation isn't stopped.
Anti-American sentiments also are running high after an increase in missile strikes from U.S. pilotless drones against suspected militant hideouts inside Pakistan.
The attack also raises questions about security in the capital, which already was at a high level because of Mr. Zardari's address to a joint session of Parliament hours before the bomb detonated.

The Wall Street Journal

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan ‚ Pakistan continued Sunday to reel from the deadly truck bomb blast at the Marriott Hotel here on Saturday, as the government described the bombing as an attack on democracy.

"Our enemies don't want to see democracy flourishing in the country," Rehman Malik, a senior Interior Ministry official, said at a news conference here on Sunday, adding that the attack was meant to sabotage Pakistan's integrity and economy.

The bombing, the most brazen yet apparently in a campaign by militants to destabilize Pakistan, came at a critical moment for the new president, Asif Ali Zardari. While he has pledged to continue fighting militants ‚ now thriving in the tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan ‚ it was unclear whether he would face political resistance making it more difficult to keep that promise.

There has always been a strong feeling in Pakistani society that using force against militants would cause them to retaliate against civilians. Although there has been no claim of responsibility for the hotel bombing, some Pakistanis say they believe it was in retribution for the military's current campaign in Bajaur, in the tribal areas.

Mr. Zardari also faces pressure to avoid doing the bidding of the Bush administration, because Pakistanis are largely opposed to American policies in the region. That sentiment grew after reports that American Special Operations forces had entered Pakistan early this month. Mr. Zardari headed on Sunday to New York, where he will meet with President Bush this week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

British Airways, meanwhile, said Monday that it was temporarily suspending its six weekly round-trip flights from London, The Associated Press reported.

In the wake of the bombing, politicians and the military said they were determined to press the fight in the tribal areas.

"There should be no letup now in fighting those who do not believe in negotiations and are bent upon causing destruction," said Amir Haider Khan Hoti, the chief minister of the North-West Frontier Province.

Current and former officials in the Bush administration, who have expressed concern in the past that Pakistan was not doing enough to fight the militants, said on Sunday that they were confident that Mr. Zardari's government would continue or even increase its counterterrorism campaign, despite the threat of more attacks against civilian targets like the Marriott Hotel.

"The terrorist groups are ratcheting up the pressure against the Pakistani politicians, but you won't see the Pakistani government back down because of these attacks," said Xenia Dormandy, who directed South Asia affairs at the National Security Council until 2005.

Meanwhile, the death toll in the hotel blast rose to 53, with at least 266 people wounded, officials said on Sunday. Two Americans were among the dead.

Mr. Malik, the Interior Ministry official, said Pakistani officials suspected that militants from the tribal areas were responsible.

"All roads lead to FATA," Mr. Malik said, referring to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

He said that more than 1,300 pounds of explosives were used, adding that the blast created a crater about 60 feet wide and 25 feet deep.

He also released a videotape showing a six-wheel dump truck stopped by security guards at a barrier in front of the hotel's main entrance. A few gunshots were heard, and after a small explosion the front part of the truck caught fire. It burned for about three minutes as three to four security guards were seen running away and then returning as one guard tried to put out the fire with an extinguisher.

Mr. Malik said investigators were still trying to determine whether the attacker was killed by gunfire from the security guards or explosives detonating inside the truck cabin, or whether he got out of the truck and then detonated an explosive device.

Rescue workers pulled five bodies out of the hotel wreckage on Sunday, as excavators used a crane to clear the debris. Officials had believed, at first, that many people were trapped inside the burning hotel and had feared a much higher death toll.

Mr. Malik said the investigation into the attack would be conducted only by Pakistani authorities.

"We don't need any help; we reject it," he said when asked about an offer from the United States to send F.B.I. agents.

Pakistani officials said at least 106 people, including 11 foreigners, had been admitted to hospitals in Islamabad. Those foreigners included four Americans, four Saudis, a Briton, an Afghan and a Lebanese. One Vietnamese person and the Czech ambassador to Pakistan were among the dead.

On Sunday afternoon, distraught relatives milled about anxiously outside one hospital, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.

Dr. Samia Ali, 33, said she had been visiting Islamabad to attend her sister's wedding and came to the hospital to volunteer. She said most of the patients she had seen had severe burns, head injuries and cuts.

Luqman Khan, 25, was lying on a bed in a surgical ward of the institute on Sunday. He was operated on for a head injury on Saturday night. Mr. Khan said he had worked at a government building across the road from the Marriott.

"A truck filled with bricks was aflame near the entrance," he said. "People were shouting, "Get away! Run away!' After a few minutes, there was a big explosion. I fell unconscious."

On Sunday the police had cordoned off the blast site, and dozens of people stood by in a somber mood.

Shahid Kamal, 42, a freelance editor, said he was sick of the wave of violence that had engulfed Pakistan, especially in the tribal areas.

"This is a reaction of what is going on in FATA," he said. "We have been implementing a reckless and careless policy for a number of years. What's happening in FATA is that Pakistanis are killing Pakistanis."

Muhammad Qadeer, 36, a security guard, said perhaps the Indians could be involved.

"It can be the work of America also," Mr. Qadeer said. "Maybe our new president didn't agree to its dictations."

The New York Times

Pakistan's top leaders were to dine at the Marriott hotel that was devastated by a truck bombing over the weekend, but changed the venue at the last minute, a senior government official said Monday.

The blast in the capital Islamabad killed at least 53 people and underscored the extremist challenge facing nuclear-armed Pakistan. Two intelligence officials said Pakistani troops and tribesmen opened fire on two U.S. helicopters after they crossed from Afghanistan into the northwest tribal region, where Taliban and al-Qaida militants are operating.

In a further sign of the country's deteriorating security situation Monday, gunmen kidnapped Afghanistan's ambassador-designate and killed his driver in the main northwestern city of Peshawar, said a spokesman for the mission in the city.

Abdul Khaliq Farahi was abducted as he traveled toward his home in the city, said the spokesman, Mohammed Zahir Babri. He gave no more details, but the kidnapping and killing was also confirmed by the Afghan charge d’affairs in Islamabad, Majnoon Gulab.

Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik did not specify why the prime minister and president decided to move the dinner from the Marriott to the premier's house but said the decision was kept secret.

“Perhaps the terrorists knew that the Marriott was the venue of the dinner for all the leadership where the president, prime minister, speaker and all entire leadership would be present,” he told reporters. “At the eleventh hour, the president and prime minister decided that the venue would be the prime minister's house. It saved the entire leadership.”

Some 270 people were wounded in the attack, while the dead included the Czech ambassador and two U.S. Department of Defense employees.

Most of the victims were Pakistanis, a fact likely to increase pressure on the government to stem the rising violence in the Muslim nation that many blame on the country's partnership with the U.S. in the war on terror.

Suspicion has fallen on al-Qaida or the Pakistani Taliban in the blast.

But Amir Mohammad, an aide to one prominent Pakistani Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, said the militant group was not involved and shared the nation's grief. Mehshud was blamed by the last government for a suicide attack that killed Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's wife, the pro-U.S. politician Benazir Bhutto. He denies that charge too.

“We have our own targets and we execute our plans precisely with minimal loss of irrelevant or innocent people,” Mehsud was quoted as saying by his spokesman. “We have nothing to do with the Marriott hotel attack.”

The government is under U.S. pressure to crack down on the militants, who are also blamed for staging rising attacks on coalition forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

The officials who described Monday's helicopter incursion into the border region spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. They said informants in the field told them it took place about one mile inside the disputed and poorly demarcated border in the Alwara Mandi area in North Waziristan.

The helicopters did not return fire and re-entered Afghan airspace without landing, the officials said.

Pakistan's army and the U.S. military in Afghanistan said they had no information on the reported incursion.

A week ago, U.S. helicopters reportedly landed near Angoor Ada, a border village in South Waziristan, but returned toward Afghanistan after troops fired warning shots.

The alleged incident will likely add to tensions between Islamabad and Washington and comes as Zardari heads to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly.

Although no one has claimed responsibility for Saturday's hotel bombing, officials and experts said the scale of the blast and its high-profile target were hallmarks of Al-Qaida and its Taliban allies.

Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik Sunday said “all roads lead to FATA” in major Pakistani suicide attacks ‚ referring to Federally Administered Tribal Areas close to Afghanistan, where U.S. officials worry that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri are hiding.

Senior al-Qaida leader Mustafa Abu al-Yazid threatened attacks against Western interests in Pakistan in a video timed with the recent anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

Mahmood Shah, a former government security chief for Pakistan's tribal areas, said while the attack had “all the signatures” of an al-Qaida strike, homegrown Taliban militants probably had learned how to carry out an attack of this magnitude.

Al-Qaida was providing “money, motivation, direction and all sort of leadership and using the Taliban as gun fodder,” he suggested.

The blast prompted foreign diplomatic missions and aid groups in Pakistan to review their security status. British Airways said Monday it was temporarily suspending its flights to the country as a precautionary measure.

The airline, which offered six flights to Pakistan each week, did not face a direct security threat, company spokesman Suhail Rehman said.

Dramatic surveillance footage released Sunday showed how the explosive-laden truck sat burning and disabled at the hotel gate for at least 3 1/2 minutes as nervous guards tried to douse the flames before they, the truck and much of the hotel forecourt vanished in a fearsome fireball.

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