Expats in Pakistan ask if it's time to say goodbye

By Simon Cameron-Moore

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - When the place you go to eat, meet, do business, attend conferences and receptions gets blown up, it's natural to ask whether it's time to leave.

The sheer sound of the massive explosion from a suicide truck bomb at the Marriott hotel left foreigners living in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad shaken to their core -- and for some of them, it could be a tipping point.

At least 53 people were killed in Saturday's attack, which intelligence officials suspect could have been the work of al Qaeda. Two Americans, one Vietnamese and the Czech ambassador were among the dead.

Ina Pietchmann, a German woman working for the United Nations, said her "heart beat like a rabbit's" when she heard the blast and saw the night sky go red and smoke rise up.

"Our lives have got steadily worse over the past two months, We're advised not to go to outside restaurants," she said.

Two months ago there was a security scare after Pakistani police seized two four-wheel-drive vehicles stacked with explosives in the nearby city of Rawalpindi and hunted for another they feared was being sneaked into the capital.

"There's always some stress lying on you," she said.

Nuthit Phukkanasut, general manager of the Thai Airways office in Islamabad, said he was restricting his movements.