Deadly Pakistani hotel bomb raises questions, fears

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A deadly suicide truck bomb attack in the heart of the Pakistani capital highlights security inadequacies and the urgent need to rethink strategy to combat surging militant violence, analysts said on Sunday.

A suicide bomber on Saturday evening set off a huge bomb at the gate of the tightly guarded Marriott Hotel, part of a U.S.-based chain and a favorite haunt of diplomats and rich Pakistanis.

Searchers combing through the burnt-out shell of the building found more charred bodies on Sunday taking the death toll to 53, among them three foreigners including the Czech ambassador.

More than 270 people were wounded in the worst militant attack in the capital of the nuclear-armed U.S. ally.

Pakistan's army is involved in a major offensive against al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border, while the U.S. military has intensified its attacks on militants on the Pakistani side of the border.

"The whole region is in some sort of turmoil. Every day there are casualties in military operations so this should not surprise anybody," said Masood Sharif, a former director general of the Intelligence Bureau civilian spy agency.

"The immediate future doesn't look good," he said.

The bombing bore the signs of an attack by al Qaeda or an affiliate, a U.S. intelligence official said.

Whoever was responsible, the message was clear.

"It's a very clear signal to the powers that be that nobody is safe," said Riffat Hussein, professor of defense studies at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University.

"The fact it happened in the high security zone, which includes parliament where the president addressed a session a few hours earlier, underscores the ability of these groups to really challenge the authority of the state in the heart of the capital," he said.

"SYSTEM COLLAPSING"

What appeared to be a well-planned attack happened just after Muslims were breaking their Ramadan fast, when many security men protecting the city centre would have been taking their evening meal.

"Security was really at a minimum around that time," Hussein said. "Somebody had obviously taken a good look, what kind do security was in place and they were able to take advantage."

Defense analyst Ayesha Siddiqa said as well as a lapse in security, the bombing highlighted a breakdown in morale in the security system as a whole.

"Police don't want to be targeted, so they are not filling the gap, and the other forces can't do the job, so the law and order system is collapsing," Siddiqa said.

"Whatever the threat, it is definitely going to spread because you can't control it," she said.

Sharif said stepping up security and military offensives in the northwest would not work.

"There are hundreds of thousands of trucks out there. You can put out high alerts 10 times over but you can't check every single vehicle," he said.

"You already have 150,000 troops deployed. What more can one do? You've gone to the limit of trying to control it with the gun. It's very difficult to believe putting in 50,000 more troops will help," he said.

The Americans, Afghans and Pakistanis had to work out a solution together, he said.

"We need to have a look at the complete canvas and have a look at the policy level," he said.

"We can't have an endless war on terror. It's been going on for seven years and there's no end in sight ... If you look at any armed conflict, eventually there's a negotiated settlement."

Hussein said the government had to deploy all its resources, including intelligence agencies and security forces, and come up with a coherent response.

"You need to examine your strategy which obviously isn't working ... Just being in a reactive mode and condemning incidents simply will not do," Hussein said.

"The standard argument is that nobody can prevent a suicide bomb attack but if you look at how the Israelis have dealt with Palestinian suicide bombers, their track record suggests a different kind of model," he said.

"We focus on the symptoms, the people who carry out the attacks, but you need to get behind the planning structures and try to dismantle them," he said.

(Additional reporting by Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by David Fox)