The Saudi Embassy in Pakistan decided to close all Saudi schools there from Wednesday to Monday after suicide bombers attacked an Islamic university Tuesday, killing four students. Eleven Saudi students – six male, four female and one academician – of the International Islamic University survived the attack as they were not at the faculty building which was hit by the two suicide bombers. Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan Abdulaziz Al-Ghadier said the students are unharmed and were taken to their residences safely. The embassy will decide whether to resume study after evaluating the security situation. The Pakistani government ordered all educational institutions closed for a week in three of the country's four provinces. The university is attended by 18,000 students. It has close to 2,000 international students, many from China. While it is a seat of Islamic learning, most students take secular courses such as management science or computer studies. The suicide bombers hit a faculty building and a women's cafeteria at the university, where nearly half the students are women and hundreds are foreigners. The blasts, which left bits of flesh and body parts strewn on the floor, killed two male and two female students and wounded at least 18 others. The two attackers were also killed, officials said. No group claimed responsibility for the attack on what some people thought was a surprising target for extremists, but the president of the university and authorities said they believed it was the work of militants in the northwest. “Those who call themselves champions of Islam, they have today proved by attacking the Islamic university that they are neither friends of Islam nor Pakistan,” said Interior Minister Rehman Malik. Many students did not accept that militants were responsible for attacking a hub of Islamic learning and instead blamed shadowy forces out to discredit Islam or weaken Pakistan – variations of conspiracy theories that are often heard here after bombings. “It shows clearly that anti-Islamic elements are involved in these attacks,” said economics student Abul Hassan.
