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Zardari says he escaped assassination at Marriott
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari called the recent bombing in Islamabad's Marriott hotel an assassination attempt he and other top leaders narrowly escaped, in an interview on US television.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:07 October 2, 2008
Washington/London: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari called the recent bombing in Islamabad's Marriott hotel an assassination attempt he and other top leaders narrowly escaped, in an interview on US television.
"All of us. All the parliament, the people, all of democracy was the target. We were all supposed to be there," Zardari told Fox News late Tuesday, when asked if he thought he was the target of the devastating September 20 blast.
"I was supposed to be there with my prime minister, with my speaker, with a lot of us. Just by chance that it was changed," Zardari said. "We were sitting in the speaker's dinner just a stone's throw away from that same place. We were in the PM house on the lawn when we heard the bang," he added.
Interior ministry chief said the speaker of the national assembly had arranged a dinner for Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and top military brass at the Marriott that night, but the venue was changed at the last minute to the prime minister's house. But a spokesman for the owner of the hotel owner denied it, saying there was no government reservation on that day.
Diplomats' children
Britain is bringing home the children of its diplomats in Pakistan following last month's suicide bomb attack at the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, the Foreign Office said yesterday. "Following a review of security in the wake of the attack on the Marriott hotel, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has decided that children of UK-based staff at the British High Commission in Islamabad should return to the UK," a Foreign Office spokesman said.
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