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.”
I also think that an international match of some sort at Lahore should be played as soon as possible. It will not be easy, but if not done then the ICC and world cricket has surrendered to terrorists.
welll what ever happened was simply terrible and i m sorry for the sirilankan team who had to face all that in my country.
i reallly salute the sirilankan team.and the people who died while saving the team.
actually the thing is that when after mumbai attcks india started blaming us we were enraged and and now what ever we r doing is the reaction of what india did to us .
every one here is telling pakistan to stop blaming india but i m hundred percent sure if again anything like that will happen in india they will do the same what they did before.
I agree that doing some sort of a major game at Gaddafi Stadium, maybe with a World combined team would send a strong message of defiance to the terrorists. But I am afraid that politics will again come in the way.
This report on the statement from the Sri Lankan foreign minister is important to read for many reasons:
SLAMABAD: Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said on Wednesday that he could not rule out the possibility that Tamil Tigers were involved in the attack on his country’s cricket team in Lahore.
“We do not rule out,” the involvement of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as they steadily lose territory to government forces, he told a joint news conference with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. “Desperation of the LTTE is something we are all looking at.”
The foreign minister said the investigation into the Lahore attacks was the responsibility of Pakistan and that “we have confidence in Pakistan.” —AFP
Muhammad Saleh Zaafir adds: Pakistan has shared the initial findings of the Tuesday attack on cricketers in Lahore with Sri Lanka, which has expressed full confidence in the investigations being carried out by Pakistan into the tragic incident that resulted in the injury to six Sri Lankan top cricketers and killing of seven Pakistanis including six policemen.
Qureshi said Pakistan had shared important leads of Lahore attack with Sri Lanka. The two ministers described terrorism as a common threat and expressed resolve to foil attempts by terrorists to weaken their relationship.
Qureshi said Pakistan shared with the Sri Lankan foreign minister its initial investigations into the incident. He said Pakistan has some details and important leads that may eventually help unearth people responsible for this terrible act.
He hinted that Pakistan would send a special team to Colombo to share details with the Sri Lankan government. The Sri Lankan foreign minister said his country is a victim of terrorism and has fought it with resolve. It has successfully countered terrorism and is on the last stage of elimination of terrorism from its soil. He, however, pointed out that it was for the first time ever that Sri Lankans have been targeted outside their country.
Rohita Bogollagama said the seriousness shown by Pakistan over the issue of attacks on the Sri Lankan cricketers has been registered well in Colombo. He said Sri Lanka sees Pakistan as a friend in need and a friend in deed.
The Sri Lankan foreign minister said his country condemns terrorism. He lauded the bravery of the martyred policemen who saved the lives of the Sri Lankan cricketers. The visiting foreign minister said the Sri Lankan cricket team will tour Pakistan again. “It will give highest consideration to the invitation extended to it to undertake visit again. Sri Lanka will not allow Pakistan’s isolation in the cricket.”
Wake Up PAKISTAN!!!!
We are losing Paistan to this Stupid Maulvi movement.
It shocks me that are still believing in conspiracy theories that CIA or India is behind these acts.
We will lose Pakistan and still people will cry out conspiracy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree with Timothy, both Indians and Pakistanis keep whining about each other. Enough of it. Please.
Both after Mumbai and now, if Indians and Pakistanis spent half the time they do in blaming the other on actually cleaning up their own mess, maybe your own countries and the world will be a better place.
I really do not think that Indians have done this, just like Mumbai was not done by Pakistan.
there may have been terrorists who trained in Pakistan in the Mumbai case and there may well be terrorists who were trained in India for this one, but that does not mean that either country was involved. I really dont think that can ever be.
In both cases it is the enemies of peace who did this and what they want to do is to make people so angry and frustrated and afraid that they lose sight of common sense. I think in each case that is exactly what has happened.
Someone gave the excellent idea that the ICC should organize a special memorial match at Gaddafi stadium between Pakistan and World XI to stand up to the terrorists and to show that the world will not bow to them.
If countries run away from this they are just giving in to the terrorists.