Adil Najam
In this still-developing story, unknown gunmen opened fire on the Sri Lankan cricket team bus near Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore leaving several security officials dead and several Sri Lankan cricketers were rushed to the hospital.
The News is reporting at least 5 security officials dead while The Times reports that as many as 8 Sri Lankan crickets might have been injured. However, latest reports point out that the injuries to the players are minor, although the shock is deep.
According to an earlier report from the Associated Press:
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A dozen masked gunmen armed with rifles and rocket launchers attacked a vehicle carrying members of Sri Lanka’s national cricket team Tuesday, wounding at least two players and killing five police officers, officials said.
The attack in Lahore came at a time of unrest in both Pakistan and Sri Lanka, both of whom are trying to defeat insurgencies. It was unclear who was behind the assault, but it appeared to have been carefully coordinated. City police chief Haji Habibur Rehman said five policemen died in the shooting and that two players were wounded. A Pakistan Cricket Board security official had earlier said eight players were wounded.
“It was a terrorist attack and the terrorists used rocket launchers, hand grenades and other weapons,” Rehman said, adding that the police were hunting down the attackers who managed to flee. “Our police sacrificed their lives to protect the Sri Lankan team.”
He said one wounded player was hit in the leg while the other received a bullet in the chest.
Sri Lankan team manager Brendon Kruppu said the team’s batsman, Kumar Sangakkara, was among those injured near Gaddafi Stadium ahead of a game. Rehman said 12 masked gunmen participated in the attack. Footage from the scene Tuesday showed the team’s white van with its front window shattered as security officials tried to gain control of the scene in an intersection.
Security concerns have plagued Pakistan for years and some foreign sports teams have refused to play here.Most of the violence in Pakistan occurs in its northwest regions bordering Afghanistan, where Taliban and al-Qaida militants have established strongholds. Lahore has not been immune from militant violence however, and at least one attack in recent months in the northwest has occurred next to a sports stadium. Sri Lanka appeared on the brink of crushing the Tamil Tiger rebels after more than a quarter century of civil war.
In recent months, government forces have pushed the guerrillas out of much of the de facto state they controlled in the north of the Indian Ocean island nation and trapped them in a small patch of land along the coast. The rebels, who are fighting for an independent state for Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority, are listed as a terror group by the U.S. and EU and are routinely blamed for suicide bombings and other attacks targeting civilians.
The rebels rarely launch attacks outside Sri Lanka, though their most prominent attack — the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by a female suicide bomber — took place at an election rally in India in 1991.
As reader Eidee Man wrote in his comment elsewhere on thsi blog (in alerting us to this news): “Everything is officially going to hell.”
Dear SRI LANKAN
You are exactly right and I apologize for the inhumanity of some the comments. I think many of my Pakistani friends and certainly many in Indian media etc. have lost sight of what this is really about. I do share you pain and have also a deep guilt that this happened in Pakistan. As other s have said, no matter who did this, they are enemies of Pakistan.
Whoever did Mumbai and wherever they were trained they were enemies of humanity and of India. Whoever did this and wherever they were trained they are enemies of humanity and of Pakistan.
Maybe it is because people are in pain that they are saying stupid things about this on TV and on blogs. But really our hearts are with you and your team.
Also, I should say that I am extremely proud and impressed by the Sri Lankan team and the dignity with which they have reacted instead of pointing fingers looking at the real story. I wish that the Indians and Pakistanis here had the same dignity. Both Pakistan and India can certainly learn from Sri Lanka here.
I do not know who did this. But I know whoever it was the real face of enemy of Pakistan.
I do not want to get into blame game. I remember how horrible the Indians looks when they immediately started pointing fingers to others. I do not want to be like them.
Right now my prayers are with Sri Lankans in this time of tragedy and also with the families of the brake Pakistani soldiers who died while saving the Sri Lankan cricket team.
All Pakistanis salute the brake guards and drivers who laid down their lives to save the visiting players and gave ultimate sacrifice.
It is they who represent the majority of Pakistanis.
To all Sri Lankan friends, our condolences are with you. i am so glad that no major injury was reported but ashamed that we live in a world where this is happening and in my country.
There is no doubt this is a failure of immense magnitude as far as the security precautions provided by the government are concerned. The fact that 12 people were able to continue this rampage for half an hour, kill 8 people, and then walk away unharmed is mind boggling. But this is not the first time security has been more than loose in Pakistan. Marriot in ISB, Benazir’s assassination, etc. The lankan team should definitely have been provided more security. As far as the route is concerned, that’s a no brainer. There are only 2 main entrances to Gaddafi stadium, and the driver probably took the most direct path. If I were one of the dozen, that would have been the easy part to figure. The hard part would be to make it out alive and unharmed after having stayed there for 30 minutes. I’ll also add the driver being hailed as a hero – I mean it’s great what he did and saved the team otherwise we would have an even bigger egg on our face right now – it is only a miracle he and the players were saved. According to his own description of the events, the bus was first targetted with a rocket launcher that skidded off the top of the bus. There was a grenade that was thrown at the bus next which didn’t do much damage. After that he decided to make a run for it. The Sri Lankan team is alive because of their good luck – Pakistani security has shit to do with this. Then again, what would 10,000 cops do in front of a bloody rocket launcher aimed at a bus!
While it is possible that Pakistani militants or political opponents of the PPP carried out this shocking and tragic attack, external elements from India or Sri Lanks can not be ruled out. In fact, the investigators should not rule out anything immediately and pursue all leads until they have good preliminary results.
There has been a lot of discussion in India by former RAW officials to launch covert actions inside Pakistan after Mumbai. And, lately, the Tamil rebels have also been under a lot pressure in Sri Lanks by recent successes of the Lankan military. There are multiple external players with strong motivation to launch such an attack.