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.”
@Bloody Civilian
I read your posting with disbelief and horror. You have been unnecessarily harsh and very unkind to that poor chap. He obviously has had an underprivileged childhood, and perhaps suffers from other physical disabilities as well: a tape measure may not be the most tactful present on his birthday.
By repressing his innermost feelings as you did, heartlessly and with great lack of sensitivity, you might stunt his personality and cause him serious harm. Can you not foresee the repercussions when he grows up?
We each of us need to have our inner child responded to, our urges towards self-expression encouraged. I suggest that your proper attitude towards our struggling friend, a step to remove his feelings of inadequacy and his angst at being forced to leave his life’s mission to other, perhaps less worthy people, is to train him. Instead of berating him, you ought to be offering him a suitable manual
to improve his skills. I am sure that the quality of his future postings will improve dramatically, his breath will be sweeter and he will find female company. On second thoughts, in keeping with my liberal disposition, as opposed to my personal orientation, let us hope that he will find female or male company or both, as his inclinations sway him.
There is one element that the good old Soviets never understood; the open, free and fair conversation in an open society.
For them, looking at US from outside, it was a weakness as you could pick up a newspaper, a book or attend a conference and read and see all the warts.
They never understood that the power of free discussion is the strength of the system; not it’s weakness. Now the former chamchas of Soviets, in their new chameleon roles and falling for the same mistake. (BTW, if you walked away from the Soviets at the first chance, you will walk away from your new found “friends” at the first opportunity.)
At ATP, and I hope at other Pakistani forums just as well, Pakistanis and friends of Pakistanis engage in open, free and honest conversation for the love of Pakistan and for the best of Pakistan. Pakistan is not an open society yet, but this medium of the Internet has almost made it.
As for anyone who wishes ill-will towards the other, well, they are spending more time over ill-will towards the other and not spending enough time on their own problems. And ooohhhh, do not think for a minute that the open pain of Pakistan is joy for you. You have more than enough problems on hand. You are just pretending they do not exist.
And Pakistan will fix the problems sooner than later. This open effort is not without benefits.
That said, please spend more time on problems of Pakistan, ask more of your friends to spend even more time on problems of Pakistan. Go have at it !
(Pssst. You are not spending enough time on fixing your own house. (Incidently, an advice given to me often by my lovely wife; but then she loves me understands the nature of my problems.))
Arjun-2 congratulations, in advance. Although you say you would have preferred to be the destroyer rather than that joy being denied to you by Pakistani killjoys. You also say that “a few people dying is bad”. So, what do you think would happen to the rest of the 170 million people?
Pakistan is going to rot and disappear. That is what was meant to be. I wish India would crush you out but it seems Pakistanis will do it themselves and need no help from us.
I am glad for what is happening. Yes, a few people dying is bad, but if Paksitan disappears because of this we will be better off.
Gorki, I don’t think all Pakistanis are as bad as you. I refuse to think all Pakistanis can live in denial of what’s Pakistan’s rulers have done to Pak.
@ Nostalgic and Pakistani for peace
Thanks for the kind remarks and the hopitality of your spirit.
It is people like you, among many others who make it impossible not to like Pakistan and ATP.
Regarding my compatriots, they say you can choose your friends but not your family; they come in all varieties; so is it with compatriots and countrymen.
When people read the ugly comments made by a handful of flamethrowers, one must remember that India is a very large country with all sorts of people.
It may come across as a ‘Hindu’ country to other foreigners but Pakistanis should know better than that.
India is a home to people of all faiths known to mankind, including 130 million equally ‘Indian’ muslims (almost another Pakistan.)
For every rabid communalist in India, there is a socialist or a secularist who refuses to hate based on faith.
Remember that most things that are sacred to a Pakistani, e.g the glories of Mughal India and Sher Shah Suri, the poetry of Ghalib and Iqbal, the sacrifices in 1857 and the subsequent freedom struggle, giants like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan have a place of pride in Indian hearts too.
Above all, the shared love of cricket binds our two nations in ties so strong that no two countries in the world are like us.
Thus any attack on cricketers is mourned equally by all of us South Asians.
Our condolences are from the heart and so are our good wishes.
Dear Gorki
Nice sentiments. Clearly many many Pakistanis, certainly on this forum share the hopes for peace and goodwill. But, maybe a similar analysis of the comments posted by Indian readers at this tragedy would best be done by an Indian rather than a Pakistani. Maybe, looking at what your compatriots are saying woudl start explaining what you are hearing from some Pakistanis.
By the way, by own strategy is to ignore the shouting matches from either side. Both countries have their share of war monger. Luckily they are not teh majority. They just shout the loudest
Gorki, for a non-Pakistani your posts show you are incredibly well-informed about our country!
Like you said, obnoxiousness, paranoia, arrogance and other such tendencies aren’t the exclusive domain of any one nationality… we have seen plenty of evidence of the above from both sides of the border, but one day, better sense will prevail…
I am delighted that you frequent this website, and I am sure I am not alone…
Peace Bro (or Sis…) … :)