Let the Killings Begin

Osama bin Laden dead: Saudi Arabian diplomat shot dead in revenge attack

By Rob Crilly, Islamabad 11:51AM BST 16 May 2011

A Saudi Arabian diplomat was shot dead in Karachi on Monday, in the second attack on the country's interests in Pakistan since the death of Osama bin Laden.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack and expressed his condolences 
The Pakistan Taliban, which is linked to al-Qaeda, immediately claimed responsibility in telephone calls to media organizations.
"Until America stops chasing al-Qaeda and stops drone strikes we will keep carrying out such attacks," said a spokesman, referring to attacks on militants in the north-west of Pakistan.
Police in Karachi said the man – named by the Saudi embassy as Hasan Khatani – worked in the consulate's security department and was driving a vehicle with diplomatic plates when two motorcycle riders unleashed a hail of gunfire at a crossroads in the city's upmarket Defense neighborhood.
Iqbal Mahmood, Chief of Police in the city, said gunmen fired four bullets and fled on their motorcycle, killing him on the spot.
"They came on a motorbike, they fired four shots. One bullet hit his head and he died on the spot," he told reporters.
Yusuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan's prime minister, condemned the attack and expressed his condolences.
He met John Kerry, the chairman of the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, today. Mr Kerry is the first American politician to visit since bin Laden was killed and he brings tough questions about how the al-Qaeda leader could have lived undetected in Pakistan for so long.
The Pakistani Taliban, blamed for some of the worst acts of violence in the country, last Friday took responsibility for a double suicide bombing that killed 89 people outside a police training centre as their first revenge for bin Laden.
However, no one has yet claimed an attack on the Saudi consulate in Karachi last Wednesday, when two men threw grenades at the building. No one was hurt.
Al-Qaeda is violently opposed to the Saudi government and has vowed revenge for the killing of its leader, Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, by US special forces in Pakistan.
With so many questions still unanswered about the global terror mastermind's death, Pakistan is awash with conspiracy theories.
Some people believe Saudi Arabia, jittery with the fall of governments across the Middle East, may have given up the world's most wanted man to ensure militants could not capitalize on the Arab Spring.