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Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami (HuJI), a Pakistani terrorist outfit with close links to al-Qaeda, is now suspected to have carried out Saturday's devastating bombing of the Marriott Hotel here which killed 53 people, including four foreigners, a media report said.
So far, the needle of suspicion for the suicide bombing - the deadliest in Pakistan - was on Pakistani Taliban.
Quoting intelligence officials probing the attack on the Marriott, a news report stated that the pattern of the attack on the Marriott pointed to the possible involvement of HuJI and its leader Qari Saifullah Akhtar and not the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, which has been blamed for most recent suicide bombings in the country.
HuJI is known to maintain close links with Al-Qaeda, at whom a finger of suspicion has been pointed by Pakistani experts for the Marriott bombing.
In the massive manhunt launched aftermath of the suicide bombing, investigators said that they believe that the bombers constructed the massive 600-kg truck bomb in the capital, since all lorries entering Islamabad are searched at checkpoints.
So the main thrust of the investigators is to locate the 'safe houses' and HuJI and al-Qaeda cells in the capital. Media reports said that in all probability the bombers could have smuggled explosives into Islamabad in smaller consignments and then constructed the deadly truck bomb.
A suicide bomber rammed a truck packed with high intensity explosives, including RDX and TNT, into the main gate of the Marriott on Saturday and detonated the payload.
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