Denmark’s Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller said Monday that an employee at the Danish embassy in Islamabad was killed and three others were injured – one seriously – as a result of Monday’s apparent suicide car bomb attack against the Danish diplomatic mission in the Pakistani capital.

Initial reports speak of at least four others having been killed outside the embassy compound.

»This is an abhorrent terrorist attack against the Danish embassy in Pakistan«, Per Stig Møller said adding that Pakistani authorities were doing all that they could to determine who was behind the attack, but that there were as yet no concrete details.

»We are in contact with the Pakistani authorities to find out who is behind this attack. What these criminals have done is to try to destroy the relations between the Pakistani government, the Pakistani population and Denmark«, he added.

»Al-Qaida’s Bin Laden has called for attacks against Denmark as a result of the Mohammed cartoons. It could also be the Taleban wanting to attack us as we are in Afghanistan. Benazir Bhutto has just been killed out there – and that has nothing to do with Afghanistan. So there is a lot of guesswork going on. Irrespective, it is a group – a person or a group that wants to destroy the relationship between Pakistan and the West«, Stig Møller said.

Several threats against embassy
Muhammad Ashraf - a police officer at the scene of the attack said that the explosion was probably caused by a car bomb. A car parked in front of the embassy exploded at around 1 p.m. local time, he said.

Streets around the Danish embassy were littered with bricks and broken glass and destroyed vehicles were spread around the area, which has now been closed off.

Denmark has been the target of several threats against its Islamabad embassy as a result of controversy surrounding the Mohammed cartoons in 2005 and 2006.

Embassy security checks
Per Stig Møller said the Foreign Ministry was to begin security checks of all Danish embassies following Monday’s attack and that help was on its way to the embassy in Islamabad.

»We have set up a crisis staff to collect information about the case and coordinate the task we have ahead of us. We are preparing to send out a team of employees to help embassy staff – including crisis help«, the foreign minister said.

At the same time, Denmark’s Foreign Ministry has updated its travel recommendations for Pakistan, advising against all trips to Pakistan that are not absolutely necessary.

Denmark’s terrorism expert Lars Erslev Andersen says that the controversial Mohammed cartoons have probably been a factor in connection with Monday’s suicide bomb.

Erslev Andersen recalled that Osama bin Laden said back in 2006 that the publication of the Mohammed cartoons was ‘worse’ than the bombing of villages in Afghanistan.

»But that doesn’t mean that today’s bomb has been directly ordered by bin Laden. He is an inspiration for local groups that take independent decisions about attacks«, said Lars Erslev Andersen.

Translated by Julian Isherwood