PAKISTAN LEADERS 'NARROW ESCAPE' !
See the scale of the damage at the Marriott in Islamabad
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Pakistan's top leaders were to have been in the Islamabad Marriott hotel when it was bombed - but changed venue at the last minute, officials say.
Interior ministry head Rehman Malik said the president, prime minister and military chiefs should have been there.
He told journalists it would have been "a great catastrophe", but did not say why the dinner plans were changed.
A suicide bomb devastated the Marriot on Saturday, killing at least 53 people and wounding more than 266.
The Czech ambassador to Pakistan was also killed in the blast, it was confirmed on Sunday.
President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani were planning to dine at the Marriott, Mr Malik said, before a late change of plan.
"The national assembly speaker had arranged a dinner for the entire leadership - for the president, prime minister and armed services chiefs - at the Marriott that day," Mr Malik told reporters.
"The president and the prime minister changed the venue to the prime minister's house. The function was not held at the Marriott, thus the whole leadership was saved."
In other developments, it was reported that Pakistani troops fired on US helicopters that violated Pakistani airspace near the border with Afghanistan on Sunday night.
Tensions between the US and Pakistan have risen in recent weeks amid US accusations that Pakistan is not doing enough to combat Taleban militants in the region.
And in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, an Afghan diplomat was kidnapped and his driver killed, reports said.
Taleban suspects
The heavily guarded Islamabad Marriot was attacked at about 2000 (1500 GMT) on Saturday.
CCTV footage of the moments before the blast show a six-wheeler lorry ramming the security barrier at the hotel gate.
The bomb - believed to have been detonated in the lorry - left a six-metre (20ft) crater.
Rescuers have been combing the wreckage for survivors and bodies.
Most of the dead were Pakistanis, although one Vietnamese, a German and an American are also known to have died, with an American and a Danish intelligence officer missing, presumed dead.
The blast has prompted British Airways to cancel two flights to Pakistan "in light of the security situation".
No-one has yet admitted carrying out the attack, but the Pakistani Taleban are thought to be the most likely perpetrators.
The Marriott was the most prestigious hotel in the capital, located near government buildings and diplomatic missions. It is popular with foreigners and the Pakistani elite.
Eyewitnesses: Pakistan blast
In pictures: Islamabad aftermath
The hotel has previously been the target of militants. Last year, a suicide bomber killed himself and one other in an attack at the hotel.
The BBC's Barbara Plett, in Islamabad, says the latest attack might have been retaliation for army bombardments of suspected Taleban targets with jet fighters.
Earlier on Monday, Pakistan's government said it would take targeted action against the militants, promising raids in some "hotspots" near the border with Afghanistan.
Away from Islamabad, troops reportedly forced US helicopters out of Pakistani airspace in the tribal area of North Waziristan.
Our correspondent says that following a series of US raids on Pakistani territory earlier this month that it reserved the right to retaliate, with a series of warning shots the standard procedure.
In Peshawar, Afghan consul Abdul Khaliq Farahi was in a car in a city suburb when it was attacked by six unidentified men, officials say. His driver died in the attack.
Labels: Pakistan bomb Islamabad U.S.Elite Marriot-Hotel Bomb Taleban Lorry
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