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 God, Allah, Bhagwan, if you are real and you are who we think you are, please give us clear and easy to understand signs (without further distruction please) to tell everyone in the world who is right and who is wrong. You know we are not smart enough to understand Your hints in Your books, so please be specific and spell it out.
Below link seems to be a very unbiased analysis of who must have attacked the Sri Lankan convey and why.
While the entire world is awaiting for reports from investigator, every individual, irrespective of his / her nationality, and religion must condemn this act and be with Sri-Lanka and Pakistan in this situation.
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=20713
The armed attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team convoy, and the resulting loss of life of our brave police officers has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that Pakistan has been taken hostage. It has become hostage to the whims of armed extremists, obscurantists and politicians who would use this security lapse as a means of extracting political mileage.
The terrorists, regardless of their grievances, have succeeded in crushing national morale and also eliciting a passive ambivalence from our populace, who have no idea how to deal with such terrorists, except at the most, verbally condemn their actions.
We Pakistanis are plagued by terror and fear – and the time is ripe for the President, and PM to take the nation into confidence and launch a massive military operation agains the terrorists and their sympathizers across the country. It is another “either-you-are-with-us-or-against-us” moment for them. Terrorist safe-havens where terrorists OR their sympathizers are present, should be mowed down with extreme prejudice by utilizing all resources at the disposal of the State, Army, Airforce and other security forces. Any action started right now, should have reasonably widespread public support. The President, PM and lawmakers should stress that the militants do not wish Pakistan well and we cannot afford to be ambivalent anymore towards how to deal with them. No one has the right to take a life and challenge the writ of the state, regardless of the enormity of their grievances.
This is the time to strike as the iron is red hot. Failure to act or a less-than-emphatic response to the attacks on Sri Lankan cricket team will likely lead to more brazen attacks by terrorists in the future. We have already wasted much time looking for adhoc solutions. This is also needed to pull back the country from the brink of a military takeover – the more brazen the attacks by the terrorists become – the closer the country will slide towards military intervention.
May God protect all Pakistanis.
This closes the Chapter of Cricket in Pakistan. SAD, really sad. God Help Pakistan! Barack Help Pakistan!
My heart goes out to the families of those who suffered death and injuries. Whether they were Sri Lankan cricketeers, Pakistani policemen, or an average bystander. No religion allows destruction of human life.
To those Pakistanis or their supporters who always see conspiracy in every event, I suggest that they call a spade a spade. No argument and comparison with India will bring back a father to the innocent children and wives of the policemen who died.
To those Indians who are finding oppurtunity of bashing Pakistan, I say please stop this blame game. Let us work together and find solution to the root cause of this and other massacres. I do not have to tell you what that issue is which has stopped economic growth in both India and Pakistan for last 61 years and kept two nations at war.