I’m really happy to read this news. This should be a message to terrorists that we will not let them hold our country hostage & whatever they tear down we will rebuild it better and stronger.
ISLAMABAD: The Marriott Hotel will reopen on Sunday, three months after it was blown up by a truck bomb that killed 60 people and wounded 260.
Peter Alex, the chief operating officer of the Hashoo group, said ‘new concepts of security and safety’ have been used in the extensive renovation work to ensure guests can check in without fear. “It will be the Fort Knox of Pakistan,” Alex told AFP, referring to the site where the United States stores most of its official gold reserves.
Alex said 60 rooms would be available from Sunday for the Marriott’s ‘soft reopening’, with the entire hotel due to be open by March. Alex showed AFP a new bombproof wall — which is 14 feet high and 15 feet thick — erected in front of the freshly repainted building.g.
The new blast wall has been designed to absorb the shock of even a massive explosion outside, like the one in September. Visitors will have to pass through a bombproof room within the wall in order to gain access to the hotel, which will feature sophisticated scanning equipment, Alex said.
Pakistan blames banned group for Marriott hotel attack
]2008-12-22
** 21:47:03**
ISLAMABAD, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) – Pakistan on Monday blamed a banned extremist group for September’s Marriott hotel suicide attack, which killed 53 people.
"Lashkar-e-Jhangi group was behind the suicide truck bombing," Interior Adviser to Prime Minister Rehman Malik told parliament.
Two suicide bombers rammed an explosive-laden dumper into the gate of Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, killing 53 people and injuring 266 others on Sept. 20. Malik said that the explosive-laden dumper was brought from the city of Jhang in eastern Pakistan’s Punjab province. The two persons who facilitated the attacks have been arrested from the city of Toba Tek Singh in Punjab, Malik said.
60 rooms available tomorrow and full reopening will be in March.
Pakistan has suffered greatly from the false religiosity. Hopefully one day we’ll put the the religious jinn back in the bottle. That day will be the true liberation for Pakistanis.
