http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5843065.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093
Pakistan offers $125,000 bounty for terrorists who attacked cricketers
Pakistan offered a reward of $125,000 this morning for information about the 12 masked gunmen who ambushed Sri Lankas cricket team, as conspiracy theories multiplied about who was behind the Mumbai-style attack.
While police continued to scour the eastern city of Lahore for the gunmen, all of whom escaped, the government of the eastern province of Punjab appealed for help from the public in most national newspapers.
Officers announced today that they had arrested "some suspects" behind the attack, but the gunmen were still at large.
"The dignity of the country has been hurt," the Punjab government said, alongside blurred images of the gunmen grabbed from CCTV footage.
"Assist us in identifying the terrorists who fired at the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore."
As the hunt for the gunmen continued, Haji Habibur Rehman, Lahore police chief, said that none of those detained in the city had directly carried out the attack. He did not say how many had been arrested.
"So far we have not made any headway toward the perpetrators," he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
Pakistani officials say yesterdays attack outside Lahores Gaddafi stadium bore all the hallmarks of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant group blamed for a similar commando-style attack on Mumbai in November.
However, several have hinted at a foreign hand in the attack, fuelling speculation among ordinary Pakistanis - despite a complete lack of evidence - that India carried out the attack as revenge for the Mumbai attacks.
One newspaper printed what appeared to be a fake report from the Punjab polices Crime Investigation Department (CID) warning in January that Indias intelligence agency might try to attack the Indian cricket team.
The report, dated January 22, 2009, says that Indias Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has assigned its agents the task to target Sri Lankan cricket team during its current visit to Sri Lanka, especially while travelling between the hotel and stadium.
It appears to be signed by Malik Muhammad Iqbal, the additional Inspector General of Police, CID Punjab.
When contacted by The Times, Mr Iqbal declined to confirm or deny the authenticity of the report.
That is something which has been leaked, he said. I cannot comment on intelligence matters.
Other Punjab police officials declined to comment.
Several security experts and political analysts said the report was clearly a fake, designed to deflect attention from LeT and to shift blame onto the federal government that took charge of Punjab last week.
It nonetheless illustrates how Pakistans charged political climate contributes to the popular sense of denial about the threat posed by the al Qaeda and Taleban militants sheltering near its border with Afghanistan.
Asif Ali Zardari, the President, vowed today to continue the fight against the militants who are also blamed for the assassination of his wife, the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, in December 2007.
"This is an existential battle, he said in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. If we lose, so too will the world. Failure is not an option."
However, Western diplomats fear that he is being undermined by members of Pakistans powerful army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency who have links to LeT and other militant groups.
One former ISI chief with clear Islamist sympathies has even speculated publicly that yesterdays attack could have been carried out by Sri Lankas Tamil Tiger rebels, backed by Indian intelligence, as a payback for Mumbai.
"It's all too obvious that it is the handiwork of the Indian intelligence," said retired general Hamid Gul.
Despite the lack of supporting evidence, such theories easily gain credence among ordinary Pakistanis stunned at the attack on their most cosmopolitan city and a sport that is a national obsession.
Pakistanis could not do this, was a typical response from Shazia Sardar, a 28-year-old immigration officer. The people who did this were not Muslims.
However, most serious Pakistani commentators dismissed talk of an Indian conspiracy and urged the government to confront the homegrown militants who have ruined Pakistans reputation as a sporting venue.
The worst thing that can happen to a state is to go into denial. How long will we deny that we have groups that have run amok and whose obvious agenda involves destroying Pakistan as a nation state? wrote Ejaz Haider in the Daily Times.
To point to India
without bothering to look at other evidence for which we now have a long trajectory, is not simply ignorance; it is deliberate perfidy.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankas cricketers were being welcomed home by tearful relatives and the countrys sports minister, Gamini Lokuge, amid tight security at the international airport in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital.
"I never thought I will be able to come home alive," said Mahela Jayawardene, the team captain, as he was greeted by his relieved wife Christina.
Batsmen Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavitana, who were both hit by bullets, were among the first of the 25-member touring party to leave the airport to be taken to a private hospital in Colombo.
"Both of them may need further treatment and surgery," said Geethanjana Mendis, a sports medicine specialist who assessed their injuires before they flew home.
He said the entire team needed medical evaluation, but none of the injuries were life threatening.
Six players and a British assistant coach were hurt in yesterday's attack, which also left six Pakistani policemen and two civilians dead, including one of the team convoy's drivers.
In Washington last night, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, offered his sympathy to the victims of the attack but said Pakistan must be seen to be dealing with the 'terrorist problem in its midst.'
"My first thoughts are with those who died and those who have been casualties as a result of this terrorist attack," he said.
"Obviously, when people are competing in sport and suddenly there's a terrorist attack, it is all the more tragic.
"What we have to do is to make sure that action against terrorism in Pakistan is effective. We know that the vast majority of al Qaida fighters are in Pakistan, not in Afghanistan.
"We know that there are groups in Pakistan that are terrorist groups that need to be brought under control, arrested and brought to trial.
"I have been pressing for some time the Pakistan government to make sure that arrests happen, terrorists are brought under control and Pakistan is seen to be fulfilling its role in the world community in dealing with the terrorist problem in its midst."