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.”
Bangladesh cancels Pakistan tour:
Pakistan cricket has now hit the rock bottom.
That it was heading for a steep decline had never been a surprise but with
the news that minows Bangladesh have now ‘postponed’ Pakistan tour on
security fears.
Not too long ago,it was heard that Pakistan government had unofficially
‘assisted’ Bangladesh gain test status by deliberately losing a World Cup
game.The upset victory helped BD gain enough points and respect to gain test
status.
The news today that Bangladesh has now postponed Pakistan tour on security
fears and a BD security team will visit Pakistan soon to assess conditions
in Pakistan and a decision whether to go to Pakistan to play cricket will be
taken later.
‘Postponment’ is often used to disguise intentions to cancel tours at a
later stage.
Riaz,
Such useless rhetoric as yours can easily be countered, for the sake of argument, as follows:
1. Unlike Lahore, Mumbai’s attacks were aimed at soft targets. Targets that were not being protected by the police. Despite claims of Presidential level security, the targets in Lahore were reached by the attackers. Several of them were injured. It was a miracle that there were no casualties amongst the cricketers or officials. And partly the presence of mind of the driver of the Sri Lankan team’s bus.
2. Unlike Lahore, the police actually fought back in Mumbai. One of the attackers was actually captured by an unarmed policeman, who gave his life in the process of capturing him. A security camera even captured his courageous act. From most eyewitness accounts, the policemen in Lahore charged to protect the cricketers did not really fight back. Perhaps they were outnumbered, perhaps they were not fully equipped. But the fact remains that there was no fightback and no attempt to give a chase. Six policemen and a driver died and their death needs to be mourned. But these were unfortunate souls who were unable to defend themselves. Most the casualties are of people who died in the initial moments of the ambush, not people who died fighting the attackers.
3. Unlike Lahore, leadership was on display in Mumbai. When the attacks took place, the head of the Anti-Terrorism squad, no less, took personal charge of the situation and ended up giving his life. The NSG battle was led by its Director General himself and he was present at the scene of the Taj and at the Jewish center. A Major died leading his men in the Taj Hotel operations.
4. Unlike Lahore, there was a hostage situation in Mumbai that made it very difficult for the security forces to overwhelm the attackers. These hostages were taken well before any police response could have conceivably been mounted. Disproportionate force could have been easily employed to eliminate the terrorists, but it would have risked civilian casualties. Added to that was the indoor nature of the battles. In Mumbai, almost 100% of the civilian casualties took place in the initial minutes before the response was mounted. Almost 100% of the hostages were eventually rescued. There were no such difficulties in Lahore. Disproportionate force could have been used given where the attack took place.
This is not to say that the Mumbai response was good. It was a seriously flawed response and any amount of heroism of individual policemen or soldiers cannot overcome the fact that there was a huge systemic failure and the response was quite botched. Serious questions were subsequently asked of the Government and the top functionaries - the Home Minister and the Maharashtra Chief Minister - were forced to resign because of public pressure.
The point I am making by bringing up these arguments is simply that your arguments are deeply flawed and unnecessary. And can be easily countered. I personally believe that the policemen at the lowest level are often courageous, whether in Pakistan or India. That their leadership is often where the problem lies. I have no doubt that there were many brave souls amongst the security personnel. However the fact also remains that this seems like a serious security breach. It would be in Pakistan’s interest to seriously fix the structural flaws, just as it was in India’s interest to thoroughly review its security apparatus after the Mumbai attacks.
I have already expressed grief at the deaths of the policemen. I was also the first person on this thread to suggest that the ICC should organize a special cricket match in Lahore, with the World XI playing the Pakistan team, as a mark of solidarity with Pakistan and Pakistani cricket and as a statement of defiance against the terrorists. Many people have subsequently picked up on this idea.
I am stating these because of the unfounded attacks by many here on anybody who questions the botched security at Lahore that everybody from the match referee to the Aussie umpire to the Sri Lankan captain have spoken about. They have all said that the policemen charged with protecting them vanished once the attacks started. This is not disrespectful of the people who died, rather one may ask if fewer would have died if the security was up to the mark. Their lives would have gone in vain if serious questions are not asked about the planning, security procedures and the degree of leadership on the spot.
The hatred showed by Indian posters is good enough reason alone why Pakistan exists. I remember visiting Indian websites in 2002, and I saw the same vile venom being spewed against Pakistan. It was probably the same way in 1947 as well.
Anand says: “You thought it was all too smart from your end, but never realize that frustration grows from listening to such rhetorics and utter lack of sincerity from your government. ”
I could not have expressed why Pakistanis find the Indian attitude untrustworthy and frustrating any better.
Maybe if you guys tried to think more about why you distrust Pakistanis so much, you wil also figure out why Pakistanis distrust Indians so much!
@ Sophia
“The pettiness of some comments (shattered sun) is amazing. Six people give their lives and you can’t even respect that.”
I find this almost comical. I make a factual statement concerning the statements of an eyewitness and that is hate speech?? If you wish to subsist in your delusion that is your business.
“I guess for some hard-hearted beasts any dead Pakistani is a good thing, no matter what.”
Give me a break those are your words not mine. Where did you glean me wanting Pakistani’s dead in any of my comments??
“Not a big surprise where such a commenter might be from.”
Born and bred in Virginia their lady.
“I have no words to respond to the venom in the words of ’shattered sun’. How low and ghatiya does one have to be to not even respect the sacrifice of someone who has lost their life and paid the ultimate price. The inhumanity of this comment is no different than the inhumanity of the killers who do terrorism.”
Sorry I don’t speak Hindi/Urdu to know what meaningless insults you decided to throw at me. I find it almost comical that the words of an eyewitness are hate speech. I make comments to inject some reality into these proccedings not massage the egos of a nation.
Agree with Riaz, all of the gunmen were able to flee without any serious challenge, never heard anything like this happening anywhere else in the world. This is so unbelievable that it is actually funny.
Muralitharan has hinted that he felt that some elements of internal agencies in Pakistan may have been complicit in this attack and he felt that terrorists had prior information about the movements of the Sri Lankan team.
Lahore cricket attacks appear to have unleashed yet another wave of pundits of pessimism and prophets of doom and gloom about Pakistan. In spite of the obvious differences, most find it convenient to compare Lahore and Mumbai, just as they compared Mumbai with 911 attacks. While it was clearly a significant security lapse, the parallels with Mumbai are only superficial. Here are some of the obvious differences between the two tragedies:
1. Unlike the Lahore attackers, the Mumbai attackers were on a suicide mission and fought a determined and long battle killing lots of civilians while mocking Indian authorities for almost three days.
2. Unlike Mumbai police, ATS and Indian commandos, Lahore Police were able to protect their charges from hostage taking or being killed while sacrificing their own lives.
3. Unlike the Mumbai attackers, the Lahore attackers staged an ambush and ran away when the police responded. The fact that all of them were able to flee without a serious chase is still something to be very seriously concerned about and it requires better preparation and training for the future.
The nature of the attacks and attackers appear to be very different leading one to conclude that Lahore is not the work of the known Jihadi groups operating in South Asia. Some domestic radical groups in Pakistan could be the perpetrators but it is more likely the work of mercenaries hired by external elements for carrying out a covert action to terrorize Pakistan as supposed pay back.
So the least it can do is focus on fixing it , so that problems coming from it dont destroy other countries.
Hmmm … the old “negotiate with a gun to my own head” routine.