Just hours after Pakistan's new President Asif Ali Zardari
promised in his inaugural address to stamp out terrorism and
extremism, militants answered with a bloody attack in his
capital. A massive truck bomb at the gates of the Marriott
Hotel, located in the heart of Islamabad close to parliament
and other government buildings, killed at least 50 people
and wounded some 200, leaving a 30-foot crater and
destroying much of the hotel frequented by foreigners and
well-to-do locals. It was the largest bomb to ever hit the
city, with police estimating its payload at more than 2,200
pounds of explosives.
According to eyewitnesses, a large truck pulled up at the
gates of the hotel at 8 p.m. local time, when many people
inside the hotel were finishing their iftar meal to break
the day's Ramadan fast. "The suicide bomber tried to enter
from the main gate and blew up his truck," Sadruddin
Hashwani, the hotel's owner, told reporters outside the
hotel shortly after the attack. "Gas pipelines exploded
because of the blast, causing the fire. Some people are
still stuck, and we're trying to evacuate them."
The casualties included Ivo Zdarek, the Czech Republic's
ambassador to Pakistan, and Dawn News TV, a local
English-language channel, also reported that three Americans
and a Danish diplomat were also killed — although this
was not confirmed by the U.S. embassy. A number of security
personnel and hotel staff who had reportedly tried to stop
the truck were also killed in the blast.The death toll is
expected to rise, with the severely wounded including 10
foreigners from Germany, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and
Afghanistan. The landmark hotel is favored by foreign
businessmen and government officials.
The GCP event was set for one hour before to 4 hours after
the bombing. Chisquare is 17887.63 on 18000 df for p = 0.722
and Z = -0.590.
It is important to keep in mind that we have only a tiny
statistical
effect, so that it is always hard to distinguish signal from
noise. This means that every "success" might be largely
driven by chance, and every "null" might include a real
signal overwhelmed by noise. In the long run, a real effect
can
be identified only by patiently accumulating replications of
similar analyses.
