International

Terror and hate have struck again: Chirac

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS MAY 8. France's newly re-elected President, Jacques Chirac, today strongly condemned the suicide bomb attack in Karachi that claimed 11 French lives as "odious, cowardly and murderous''. He said: "Terror and hate have struck again. Eleven French citizens have become the victims of an odious, cowardly and murderous attack while working on a joint project between France and Pakistan. I have spoken to Pakistan's President and asked him to find and punish those guilty.''

The French Defence Ministry said that 23 French engineers and technicians from Defence Ministry shipyards in the port cities of Cherbourg and Brest were aboard the Pakistan navy bus that was blown up by a suicide bomber driving an explosives-filled car. The French Defence Minister, Ms. Michele Alliot-Marie, has left for Karachi and is likely to repatriate the bodies of the 11 French Defence Ministry personnel who died in the attack. Twelve were wounded, many of them seriously.

The French army chief said the attack bore the stamp of the Al-Qaeda organisation.

Eighty persons were originally involved in building two submarines for the Pakistan navy, but 40 of them were repatriated after September 11 and the recent killing of foreign nationals during a church service in Pakistan. The Ministry said the bus took a different route everyday when it went to the hotel to pick up the French staff.

The French Foreign Ministry refused to comment on the charges made by Pakistan's police chief that India was behind the attack. "We cannot rule out the involvement of the Al-Qaeda, but our suspicions are across the border... I am pointing to India.'' A French official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he did not believe India could have been involved.

In a statement, the French Foreign Ministry said: "The attack that claimed several lives in Karachi targeted staff of the national naval shipyard, working on a joint project between France and Pakistan...We call on Pakistani authorities to do its utmost to identify and punish the authors of this act of terrorism and assure them of our full cooperation in this pursuit.''

The French Defence Ministry has opened its own independent inquiry into the attack.

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