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.”
It seems as if the players were saved by the driver of the bus they were in, not by the security personnel. The visuals don’t show any evidence of a significant fightback by the security personnel. Further, the security arrangements need to be severely questioned. The level of security seemed to be less than that available for a much smaller event. One police van in front, one behind and that’s all. The total number of policemen was not much greater than the number of attackers. With the element of surprise on the side of the attackers, it is not surprising that they were able to gain an upper hand.
The cricketers were promised Presidential level security. The actual level of security was similar to what a minor provincial-level minister might get, or perhaps even less. Added to that was a major inside leak – with the route taken by the convoy changed to facilitate this attack.
It was a miracle (and thanks to the presence of mind of the bus driver) that a major catastrophe was averted (though it is no less of a catastrophe for the families of those who were killed and injured). We should be thankful for that even as we grieve the lives unnecessarily lost.
I guess the Pakistani media has sunk to the same level of jingoism that the Indian media did after the Mumbai attack. In each case cheap patriotism has replaced serious analysis. Analysis which would have made clear that the Pakistani government did as miserable a job of providing safety and security to the Sri Lankan team as the Indian government had done. Luckily in Lahore the cricketers were safe because of teh bravery of the security people and the episode left far fewer dead, unfortunately in Mumbai the incompetence of the Indian government and security was much more which left far more people dead and also it was prolonged for far longer. But in both Mumbai and Lahore it was the terrorists who won becase they were not only able to spread terror but they also brought out worst in the media and public of the two countries. Such a shame that we are unable to recognize our real enemies.
Too early to say who did it. Given what cricket is in South Asia, this was obviously an attack on the state.
This act of terrorism has clearly taken away the momentum from the Lawyers movement. And it will have interesting implications on the upcoming Indian elections. At the very least Modi cannot shout out loud in his rallies that Congress didn
@ Nihari…
Please man..get a hold of yourself…
I was sorry to see the Indian media acting stupidly after the Mumbai tragedy and I am sorry to see teh same happening in Pakistan today. maybe we are even more similar than we think.