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.”
Sridhar
You are probably right that Riaz is over-reacting and being argumentative. But I think he is doing it tongue-in-cheek to demonstrate that any of the arguments that Indians on this forum are making can easily be turned around.
You are also right in feeling slighted and frustrated by his arguments. maybe he made those arguments because he felt equally slighted and frustrated by the arguments being made by Indians here that seem to (even if they are not meant to) be made merely as cheap digs on a traditional ‘enemy’. The digs hurt even more in times when there is so much pain to begin with.
I hope that the hurt you feel at these comments will help yo also realize the hurt that is sometimes caused by some of our friends from across the border.
there are far more Pakistanis today saying that the security was not done properly and there was a lapse, even our officials are saying that. But when Paksitanis say this they are clearly saying this by way of emphasizing that we need to do far better. Unfortunately when many Indians in teh media and blogs say this they soudn as if they are gooating. Maybe they are not. maybe they are well-meaning, but because there is no trust on either side, that is what it sounds like.
When there is no trust – and there clearly is none here – even well-meaning comments start sounding like cheap digs even if they were not meant to be. I am sure many Pakistani comments now and after Mumbai were well-meaning but did not seem so to our Indian friends. The same is the case now.
I would like to believe that one day we will all act in a mature enough way to see that the common enemy is extremism of any kind and violence. unfortunately we are not there yet.
Anyhow, just my two cents… maybe, Riaz is saying something very different from what you read it as!
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!