Islamabad: The Indian High Commission will hold a reception at Islamabad’s Marriott Hotel on Friday evening where a suicide bomber killed himself and a security guard in the day.
"We have decided to go ahead with the Republic Day reception at the same place and at the same time," said an official of the High Commission. The reception starts at 1900 hours IST and the blast took place at around 1500 hours IST.
After talking with Pakistani officials, Indian High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal decided to hold the reception for where Pakistani Education Minister Asharaff Jahangir Qazi will be the chief guest.
Top Pakistani officials, foreign diplomats, media persons and celebrities have been invited to the reception.
Pakistani officials said reception was not the target of the attack. The private Geo TV quoted Pakistan's security officials suicide bomber tried to gatecrash through the emergency exit hours before the reception
The channel said the attack could be linked to the bombing of a madrasa by the security forces in Bajore tribal agency two months ago in which 80 people were killed.
It said soon after the bombing, a cleric from the Bajore agency and head of the madrasa Maulvi Faqir Muhammad had threatened at a public meeting to target Islamabad.
The Interior Ministry has declared a "red alert" in Islamabad and asked Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Elahi to step up security around the capital.
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