Attack on Srilankan cricket team in Lahore

[Neo]

Lahore attack threatens sport in sub-continent ​

By newsadmin at 3 March, 2009

​

SYDNEY: Scenes of bloodshed on the streets of Lahore after gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan team bus instantly ended any hopes Pakistan might have held of coaxing the cricketing world back to its grounds.Repercussions from Tuesday’s incident that left six players wounded and five policemen dead may also be felt through the entire region for years to come.

Security arrangements for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, to be hosted in neighbouring India, are certain to be re-examined and beefed up, while there will be renewed concerns about the merits of staging part of the 2011 Cricket World Cup in Pakistan.

Almost all of the world’s top cricket nations have already refused to tour Pakistan because of fears about the safety of their players.

Australia have not toured Pakistan since 1998 and were joined by England, New Zealand and South Africa in boycotting last year’s Champions Trophy in Pakistan.

The International Cricket Council agreed to move the tournament to Sri Lanka, but are already having second thoughts because it is during the monsoon season.

India were supposed to be touring Pakistan now but pulled out in the wake of recent militant attacks in Mumbai. Only Sri Lanka agreed to take their place.

India and Sri Lanka, co-hosts for the 2011 World Cup, have not been immune to attacks on their soil but Tuesday’s incident will surely heighten concerns about staging any events in the region.

Australia and West Indies both refused to play matches in Sri Lanka during the 1996 World Cup after bombings in Colombo while New Zealand cut short tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka foe similar reasons.

England suspended their tour of India last year after the attacks on Mumbai, which killed about 170 people, but agreed to return on the promise of tightened security.

Cricket is the most popular sport on the sub-continent but the effects are already being felt in other sports.

Hockey’s Champions Trophy has already been moved away from Pakistan and tennis officials ordered increased security at this year’s Chennai Open and the future of sport in the region now faces a bleak reassessment.

 

[Raquib]

India uses Lahore attack to put pressure on Pakistan
NEW DELHI, Tue Mar 3,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - India bemoaned the efforts of rival Pakistan to quash militancy after gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore on Tuesday, warning of similar assaults in the region unless Islamabad completely cracked down.

The nuclear-armed neighbours have exchanged angry rhetoric since the November attacks in the Indian financial capital, Mumbai, which killed nearly 170 people. India and the United States blamed a Pakistani militant group for those raids.

"They've got to address the problem, take courage in both hands, dismantle the infrastructure facilities available there," Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters.

He said "a repetition of these types of incidents may take place" if Islamabad did not deal with militants.

Six Sri Lankan players and a British coach were wounded in the brazen attack by a dozen gunmen on the team's bus in Lahore. Five Pakistani police and the driver of a second bus were killed.

Pakistan's minister of state for shipping, Sardar Nabil Ahmed Gabol, accused India of being behind the assault, saying the gunmen had crossed into Pakistan from India. No other Pakistani officials have made such accusations.

India has not yet responded to the charge but has repeatedly accused Pakistan of not doing enough to dismantle "terrorist infrastructure" on its soil.

Analysts said that with a general election looming in India, anti-Pakistan rhetoric could help the government blunt opposition criticism over the Mumbai attacks and charges that it failed to put sufficient pressure on Pakistan to act against the perpetrators.

"Every political party will try and get mileage out of this attack as terrorism is a big election issue and parties will not be able to ignore this," said Uday Bhaskar, an independent analyst. "In fact, they will make the most of it."

Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram described the attack as a "shocking incident" that exposed the "hopelessly inadequate" security provided to the Sri Lankan players.

Analysts said India's reaction could be seen as hasty and fuel further tension with its neighbour.

"The pressure is (already) there on Pakistan, the pressure has increased more now and not by any nation's desire, the incident is so major that it provokes that criticism," said political columnist Pran Chopra.

Bhaskar said India's aim was to draw international attention.

"We may be upset with Pakistan, but when they were going through an internal crisis, it was not desirable for India to state the obvious," he said.

A Pakistani official said the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team bore the hallmarks of the same militants that carried out the assault on Mumbai.

Sri Lanka's cricketers were invited to Pakistan after India pulled out in January following tensions over the Mumbai raids.

:: bdnews24.com ::

 

[leonblack08]

I heard on BBC that there route was changed at the last notice, for security reasons. And yet the terrorists knew where at exactly when to attack.

if that's true,then terrorists have infiltrated the Pakistan's security agencies.

 

[Neo]

Lankans have no bad feelings for Pakistan: Younus ​

By newsadmin at 3 March, 2009

​

LAHORE: Pakistan captain Younus Khan has condemned the today’s attack on Sri Lankan team, saying that the act is completely unacceptable.“Its very much deplorable and there should not be any such thing in sports. They were our guests and its awful to see the incident,” Khan told the reporters in a press conference held at Ghaddafi stadium here Tuesday.

“I have talked to Sri Lankan players. They have no bad feelings for our nation however, they have termed the incident ‘a bad experience’.”

There are only two teams, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, who always remain ready to play everywhere and even in worst conditions and the attack on one of these teams is really deplorable and bad for cricket, he added.

Pakistan captain praised security personnel’s efforts for saving Lankans from the attackers.

“I salute Elite Force personnel who gave their lives to save our guests, and the driver of the bus boarding Lankan players on doing a courageous job.”

“We thank Allah that the life of none of our guests was lost in the incident of which credit goes to our security men.”

 

[Raquib]

Q+A-Who could have attacked Sri Lanka's cricketers?
KARACHI, March 3 (bdnews24.com/REUTERS) - Gunmen attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Tuesday, wounding six players, officials said.

A senior Pakistani official said the raid bore the hallmarks of the same militants who attacked India's financial capital Mumbai in November. India and the United States blamed the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the three-day assault on Mumbai.

Following are the major militant groups operating in Pakistan who could be behind the attack.


LASHKAR-E-TAIBA

Lashkar-e-Taiba or "army of the pure" is one of the largest Islamic militant groups in South Asia, based in Pakistan and fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. Security analysts say it is a well-funded and highly organised group that sympathises with al Qaeda.

A charity linked to the group was headquartered at Muridke town, outside Lahore, and most LeT fighters were drawn from surrounding Punjab province. Pakistan raided the group and shut down the charity after it came under pressure from India following the attacks in Mumbai in which nearly 170 people were killed.

India charged the group's founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and other senior members Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah for the attack. The group denied it was involved.


TEHRIK-E-TALIBAN

The Tehrik-e-Taliban is led by Baitullah Mehsud, an al Qaeda ally, and has been accused of being behind a wave of suicide attacks that have rocked Pakistan since mid-2007, including one that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007. The Tehrik-e-Taliban or Movement of Taliban, Pakistan, is a loose umbrella group of factions based in northwest Pakistan. Mehsud is based in the South Waziristan region. He is fighting to establish a puritanical Islamic society based on Sharia law.


JAISH-I-MOHAMMAD

This group, led by Maulana Masood Azhar, was banned along with Lashkar in 2002 following an attack on the Indian parliament. Like LeT, it carried out suicide attacks in Kashmir, but it has also been named for attacks in Pakistan. In March 2002, a Jaish fighter killed four people, including two Americans, in an attack on a church in Islamabad.

A Jaish connection was made to one of the assassination attempts on then President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003, and there was a Jaish presence at the Red Mosque uprising in Islamabad in 2007. Jaish members have also surfaced in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Pakistan said Masood was among those detained following the November attacks on Mumbai, but then denied he was being held.


BALUCH GROUPS

Several guerrilla groups are waging a low-key insurgency in gas-rich Baluchistan province on the border with Afghanistan. Some have taken responsibility for small attacks in Lahore in the past. A group calling itself the Baluchistan Liberation United Front (BLUF) claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of an American working for the United Nations a month ago. The attack on the Sri Lankan team is on a vastly different scale to anything carried out by any Baluch group.


OUTSIDE PAKISTAN -- SRI LANKA'S TAMIL TIGERS

In Sri Lanka, official suspicion will fall on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a rebel group close to military defeat in northern Sri Lanka and which has a long history of carrying out deadly guerrilla attacks. There has been no clear evidence the Tigers have operations or links to Pakistan.

Pakistan has good relations with Sri Lanka and has given training and supplied arms to the Sri Lankan military fighting the Tamil Tiger rebels.

:: bdnews24.com ::

 

[Awesome]

India uses Lahore attack to put pressure on Pakistan
NEW DELHI, Tue Mar 3,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - India bemoaned the efforts of rival Pakistan to quash militancy after gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore on Tuesday, warning of similar assaults in the region unless Islamabad completely cracked down.

The nuclear-armed neighbours have exchanged angry rhetoric since the November attacks in the Indian financial capital, Mumbai, which killed nearly 170 people. India and the United States blamed a Pakistani militant group for those raids.

"They've got to address the problem, take courage in both hands, dismantle the infrastructure facilities available there," Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters.

He said "a repetition of these types of incidents may take place" if Islamabad did not deal with militants.

Six Sri Lankan players and a British coach were wounded in the brazen attack by a dozen gunmen on the team's bus in Lahore. Five Pakistani police and the driver of a second bus were killed.

Pakistan's minister of state for shipping, Sardar Nabil Ahmed Gabol, accused India of being behind the assault, saying the gunmen had crossed into Pakistan from India. No other Pakistani officials have made such accusations.

India has not yet responded to the charge but has repeatedly accused Pakistan of not doing enough to dismantle "terrorist infrastructure" on its soil.

Analysts said that with a general election looming in India, anti-Pakistan rhetoric could help the government blunt opposition criticism over the Mumbai attacks and charges that it failed to put sufficient pressure on Pakistan to act against the perpetrators.

"Every political party will try and get mileage out of this attack as terrorism is a big election issue and parties will not be able to ignore this," said Uday Bhaskar, an independent analyst. "In fact, they will make the most of it."

Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram described the attack as a "shocking incident" that exposed the "hopelessly inadequate" security provided to the Sri Lankan players.

Analysts said India's reaction could be seen as hasty and fuel further tension with its neighbour.

"The pressure is (already) there on Pakistan, the pressure has increased more now and not by any nation's desire, the incident is so major that it provokes that criticism," said political columnist Pran Chopra.

Bhaskar said India's aim was to draw international attention.

"We may be upset with Pakistan, but when they were going through an internal crisis, it was not desirable for India to state the obvious," he said.

A Pakistani official said the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team bore the hallmarks of the same militants that carried out the assault on Mumbai.

Sri Lanka's cricketers were invited to Pakistan after India pulled out in January following tensions over the Mumbai raids.

:: bdnews24.com ::

India uses Lahore attack to put pressure on Pakistan

Are diplomats allowed to say "F-off!", yet?

 

[Mav3rick]

I heard on BBC that there route was changed at the last notice, for security reasons. And yet the terrorists knew where at exactly when to attack.

If that is true then the thought is scary as then the terrorists must have had deep links!

 

[SurvivoR]

I heard on BBC that there route was changed at the last notice, for security reasons. And yet the terrorists knew where at exactly when to attack.

The area from where the terrorists have attacked if you have noticed in the video its a roundabout . It is a big roundabout and clearly it was not manned by police entirely.

The attack is not sudden nor it is random. It is a pre-planned calculated attack.
Unlike other attacks in Pakistan this seems that they keenly observed the arrangments before launching an attack there.

They are not worried for any counter attack by police at their back. Just check the video.

 

[Mav3rick]

Are diplomats allowed to say "F-off!", yet?

No. But I am

P.S. How is Fatehdad? When is he coming to Karachi?

 

[Neo]

Lahore Attacks Video [Rare & Clear Footage]​

Very Clear and rare Video of Gunmen attack Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, Liberty Attack Lahore. Firing on Sri Lanka Cricket Team at Liberty Market Near Gadafi Stadium Lahore.

 

[Neo]

Gunmen attack Srilankan Team in Lahore [Exclusive Video]

Unidentified gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricket team as they were on their way to Gaddafi stadium in Lahore on Tuesday, March 3, 2009 morning.

http://thecurrentaffairs.com/index.php/gunmen-attack-srilankan-team-in-lahore-exclusive-video/

 

[zeus]

clearly a very disturbing day for cricket ,i am surprised what was ISI and other intelligence were doing ? and in Pakistan many tourist and other foreigners have been targeted in past and such a lame security cover ? why Lankan team was not provided a Bullet proof Bus ? where were snipers ? when england were playing all high rise building from hotel to stadium had NSG snipers in India.it was Bus drivers present of mind and little bit of gods grace that saved them ,any news about the gun mans ?? how many have been captured or killed ?

 

[SurvivoR]

Investigation into Lahore attack will be completed in next 48 hours says :
Rehman Malik:

He said alot of evidences have been collected.

 

[linkinpark]

8 Die as Gunmen in Pakistan Attack Cricket Team


By JANE PERLEZ and WAQAR GILLANI

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A dozen gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan national cricket team and its police escort in a brazen commando-style operation in the city of Lahore on Tuesday, killing six police officers and wounding six cricketers before fleeing in motorized rickshaws, the Lahore police chief and a Sri Lankan official said.

The attackers ambushed a bus carrying the cricket team, using assault rifles, grenades and anti-tank missiles. Some Pakistani officials likened the boldness and audacity of the assault to the terror siege in Mumbai, India, last November.

Two bystanders were also killed and six officers were wounded, according to police.

The attack struck not only a major Pakistani city but also the country’s national sport — a game followed with near-obsessive fascination by many in the region. “Cricketers have never been attacked in Pakistan despite what the situation has been in the country,” Rashid Latif, a former Pakistan cricket captain, told Reuters. “Today is a black day for Pakistan cricket and a black day for Pakistan.”For a nation seething with conflict between the authorities and militants linked to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and accused by some of its neighbors of harboring terrorists, the blow to Pakistan’s international prestige and self-image from Tuesday’s attack seemed likely to be profound and enduring — certainly, as far as its sporting ties to the rest of the world were concerned.

“It’s difficult to see international cricket being played in Pakistan for the foreseeable future,” Haroon Lorgat, the head of the International Cricket Council, the sport’s global governing body, told reporters in London.

The police chief in Lahore, Haji Habibur Rehman, said the gunmen opened fire as the motorcade approached Liberty Circle, a major intersection in Lahore not far from Qaddafi Stadium, the best-known cricket facility in Pakistan. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Mr. Rehman said the gunmen were in their early 20s and were bearded. He described them as resembling Pathans, an ethnic group that dominates North West Frontier Province and tribal areas, an apparent suggestion that assailants were Taliban militants from the tribal areas.

The police chief said 12 gunmen attacked the cricketers, and were positioned in vehicles, including motorized rickshaws. According to another police official, Shoaib Janbaz, the gunmen fired a rocket-propelled grenade but it missed the motorcade and did not explode.Police escorts who were traveling in a van fired back but failed to hit the attackers, witnesses said. The assailants fled in the rickshaws and another vehicle stolen near the scene, Mr. Janbaz said, leaving behind rucksacks filled with pistols, hand grenades and an AK-47 assault rifle, he said. Television footage showed several of the gunmen firing with apparent impunity, spraying bullets from automatic rifles from the traffic circle and a grassy sidewalk area.

The governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, described the shooting as a terrorist attack, and said there were similarities with the bloody assaults in Mumbai, India, in November.

“They had heavy weapons,” said Mr. Taseer, as he arrived at the scene. “These were the same methods and the same sort of people as hit Mumbai.”

At least 163 people died in Mumbai when a squad of militants, many of them in their 20s and trained as commandos, attacked targets across the city. Senior members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani militant group active in Kashmir, have been arrested by Pakistan in connection with the attacks.

But another Pakistani official said the attackers came from India. “This was a conspiracy to defame Pakistan internationally,” said Sardar Nabil Ahmed Gabol, the minister of state for shipping, according to Reuters.

The safety of visiting foreign teams has been a major problem for the Pakistani government.

The Australian and other cricket teams have refused to play in Pakistan, saying that the safety of its players was at risk and that Pakistan was unable to provide adequate protection. Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa all boycotted a major tournament in Pakistan last year.

The Sri Lankan team was the first international squad to play in Pakistan for over a year, replacing an Indian team that pulled out of the schedule following the Mumbai attacks.

Cricket was exported to many nations by the British in their imperial days and it has remained as a national sport in some of those countries, drawing immense followings from the Indian sub-continent to Australia and southern Africa.

But the sport has not been immune from security concerns in other countries apart from Pakistan. In the past teams have refused to play in Sri Lanka, while after the Mumbai attack, the English cricket team, which was in India at the time, flew home and returned only when promised improved security. In July 2005 an Australian team was playing in England but stayed on despite a terrorist attack on the London transit system.

The test match in Lahore was the second in a two-match series. Pakistani sports officials said the match had been canceled. Helicopters evacuated the uninjured Sri Lankans from the stadium after the incident and officials said they would be flown home as soon as possible. News reports said that a British coach for the team was also wounded.

A Pakistani cricketer, Omar Gul, who was traveling with his team in a bus some distance behind the Sir Lankan motorcade said that because of the congestion in the Lahore traffic, the Pakistani team did not hear the shooting. The Pakistanis were told to go back to their hotel, where the team heard about the assault, Mr. Gul said.

The Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, cut short a trip to Nepal and returned to Colombo after the attack. The foreign minister, Rohitha Bogollagama, told reporters in Katmandu: “It’s a sad day for us. Our national cricket team has been attacked in Pakistan. We condemn and renounce all forms of violence and terrorism.”

India’s Foreign Ministry spokesman seized on the attack to repeat New Delhi’s mantra that Pakistan-based terror groups pose “a grave threat to the entire world.”

“It is in Pakistan’s own interest to take prompt, meaningful and decisive steps to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure once and for all,” the ministry spokesperson said.

There was no indication Tuesday that the attack was related to the Sri Lankan government’s current offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels.

Looks like the attackers were bearded and might be pathans from NWPF according to NYTimes article.

 

[RedBaron]

...
If you analyze the situation , you have to take into account who stands to gain and who stands to lose. Nobody denies the fact that it is Pakistn___and more importantly Pakistani cricket that has lost everything.
So the next question is who stands to gain. Let us take all the elements in this conspiracy and see what we come out with. As i have already said, this is an ANALYSIS, based on fact at hand___ which at the moment are incomplete!!
...
Iwould welcome debate on all the issues, in an analytical frame of mind.
WaSalam
Araz

- First off, this is a monumental tragedy not only for Pakistani cricket, but for the sporting community in the whole subcontinent. Mumbai attacks, Lahore attacks, BD/SL instability affect not just the countries affected, but also increase the risk profile of the entire subcontinent. E.g. ranked players may not want to play tennis in Chennai.

- The GoSL's well-intentioned goal of expressing solidarity with people and gov't of Pakistan has gone horribly wrong. But in their eagerness to demonstrate their solidarity, did they not perform adequate security risk analysis, or did they believe GoP would provide them with fool-proof security? And is it realistic and practical for any country to provide truly "fool-proof" security in the densely populated subcontinent?

- As to perpetrators, one can immediately spot the similarities in the modus-operandi between Lahore and Mumbai attackers. These highly trained, heavily armed, agile assault teams have nothing in common with the turban-clad Taliban of FATA/NWFP. My bet is that these guys belong to LeT/JuD/LeJ which are under pressure due to Lakhvi and Co. being put out of commission after Mumbai. Their goal is to attack vulnerable high-value targets like foreigners, to ensure GoP loses credibility. There may be other teams, fully trained and armed in Lashkar camps, lying low looking for high-value targets. I don't think we've seen the last of these guys, they seem to be getting bolder after every successful attack.