French doubt Islamist role in Pakistan bomb-source

PARIS (Reuters) - French secret service documents have cast doubt on a theory that Islamist militants were responsible for a 2002 bomb attack in Karachi that killed 11 French nationals, a source close to the case said on Monday.

The documents were declassified in October at the request of magistrates who will investigate the possibility that the attack was ordered by Pakistani soldiers angry with France over the non-payment of bribes tied to a defence deal.

"The documents, which are all top secret, show strong scepticism of the al Qaeda theory," the source said.

The 11 French naval engineers and technicians, who were building a French submarine, died when their coach was bombed as it left a Karachi hotel in May 2002. In all, 14 people were killed in the attack.

Pakistani authorities at first blamed Islamist militants and two men were sentenced to death for taking part, but their convictions were overturned on appeal in 2003.

The source also said the magistrates had dropped an arrest warrant for a suspected Pakistani Islamist leader, Mati Ur Rehman, whom they had been seeking as part of the investigation.

The French judges are studying the theory that the Pakistani soldiers ordered the attack after a dispute on the payment of commissions in Pakistan linked to the building of the submarine.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy dismissed the allegations as a "fable" when they surfaced in June.

The lawyer for the families of the victims, Olivier Morice, said the documents did not mention the submarine contract.

(Reporting by Thierry Leveque; writing by Anna Willard; editing by Tim Pearce)