Pakistan to hold fresh probe into French engineers killing

Zardari accused of receiving millions of dollars as kickbacks

Saturday November 14, 2009 (1207 PST)

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LAHORE: The Pakistan Government has decided to hold a fresh probe into the May 2002 killing of 11 French engineers in a suicide bomb attack outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi in the backdrop of allegations that the attack might have been masterminded by those in Pakistan who had been denied cash kickbacks which were promised to them in a 1994 arms deal to buy French Agosta submarines.

According to well placed Interior Ministry sources, the decision has been taken to unfold the mystery surrounding the 1994 arms deal and the 2002 killing of the Frenchmen belonging to the Directorate of Naval Construction who had been working in the port city of Karachi as per the terms of the contract. The sources said that during his recent interaction with his French counterpart Brice Hortefeux, Interior Minister Rehman Malik informed him that the PPP government was open to holding a fresh inquiry into the 2002 Sheraton Hotel attack to address the concerns of the French Government. The Pakistani authorities have subsequently sought from the French investigators any information on the case to initiate a fresh probe.

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