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This is getting even stranger: the place that the SL team was attacked is apparently just 50 metres from the Liberty Circle police station!
So, a VVIP convoy has its route changed at the last moment, and is attacked just 50 metres from a police station. The attackers coolly walked around Liberty Circle for about 20 minutes without being challenged by anyone. All attackers escaped unhurriedly, without injury.
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Video shows SL players were attacked near police post
Altamash Hashmi
CNN-IBN
HOMAGE: Pakistan's hockey team pay tribute to Pakistani police officers killed in Tuesday's attack in Lahore.
Lahore: CCTV footage available show the terrorists who attacked Sri Lankan players in Lahore on Tuesday walking around freely with heavy automatic weapons in an area which should have been secured as the cricket team was scheduled to pass through the route.
The footage taken from shops in the Liberty market exposes the complete breakdown in Pakistani security during the moments that followed the shocking attack.
After exchanging fire with policemen for more than 20 minutes outside the Gaddafi Stadium, killing six policemen and two others, the terrorists are seen casually slinging rifles over their shoulders, and walking through Liberty market.
While some of them carried bags, others had dropped their grenades, rocket launchers and handguns at the scene of the shootout.
They then broke up into groups of two each, and without exchanging a word get on to motorbikes parked nearby, escaping through the heart of the city.
What makes the video more startling is that it was taken about 50 metres from the Liberty market police station. Yet not one policeman is seen in any frame of the captured footage and the questions from within Pakistan and the international community are getting louder.
Why was no one monitoring the Liberty Chowk area? Why were the attackers allowed to move so freely? Why did no one raise an alarm on seeing armed men on the streets and just how did the men get away so easily?
Just across the road at the scene of the attack, the lack of security outraged International Cricket Council Match Referee Chris Broad. Broad saw his bus driver shot dead and fourth umpire Ahsan Raza lying in a pool of blood.
"They had clearly gone, left the scene and left us to be sitting ducks. So I am extremely angry that we were promised high level security and in our hour of need the security vanished and we were left open to anything and any issues that the terrorists wanted," Broad said in Manchester on Wednesday.
The CCTV footage also shows some more similarities to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
In both the attacks the gunmen are carrying their deadly fire power in rucksacks, shooting randomly, and splitting into groups of two.
But more than ever, the critical evidence has become an obvious cause of shame for the Pakistani government, already under fire for failing to secure the honoured guests they had vowed to protect.
Security Expert B Raman said that the attack is a serious act of negligence as there was no security arranged for the players en route to the stadium.
Raw behind terror attack
M S Tanvir
Islamabad—The attack by terrorists on the Sri Lankan Cricket team by all accounts are the handiwork of the Indian Intelligence Agency – RAW and could have played greater havoc but for the bravery of the Lahore elite police who laid down their lives and nipped in the bud the designs of the terrorists.
However, it would not be wrong to say that it was a great security lapse given the fact that the federal as well as Punjab Government had authentic intelligence report about such a terror attack on Sri Lankan cricket players by RAW as part of Indian designs to create a wedge in the cordial relations between Pakistan and Sri Lanka,
According to well-informed sources, the intelligence report was with the federal as well as the Punjab government as far back as 22 January. It was clearly mentioned in the RAW plan that the attacks should be carried out during the Sri Lankan cricket team’s visit to Pakistan.
The terrorists were trained and asked to carry out the attack on the Sri Lanka team either on their way from the Hotel to the Stadium or in the hotel itself. The attack in the manner it was carried out proved the authenticity of our intelligence agencies report cautioning the government well in time. The RAW’s plan also included attacks on leaders of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, but thanks to Almighty God a handful of our brave and valiant police personnel, the terrorists failed to fulfil their mission. While the government claims that there was adequate security, the observers are of the view that there were some lapses somewhere which needed to be investigated.
What is worrisome is the fact that the terrorists after their pre-planned and well executed mission disappeared from the scene leaving the police in the lurch. One can only hope and pray that the terrorists trained by RAW are traced as quickly as possible so that the mastermind behind the incident fund providers and the country where the conspiracy was hatched are exposed.
Top Stories | Pakistan Observer Newspaper online edition
Indian Army-Issued Weapons used in Lahore Attacks
Thursday, 05 March 2009 04:42
Sources have informed PKKH that weapons recovered in the aftermath of the Lahore attacks on Sri Lankan cricketers include a Russian made RPG-22, a one-shot disposable anti-tank rocket launcher and an 84 mm Carl-Gustaf Recoilless Rifle Launchers.
Both these weapons are standard Indian Army issuance.
The RPGs used by Afghan militants is the soviet era RPG-7 - the most widely distributed and used RPG in the world.
Indian Army-Issued Weapons used in Lahore Attacks? | Pakistan Daily
Crime Investigation Agency claimed capturing as many as five suspects including two persons, accused of having involvement in Sri Lankan team assault
this can be motivation for ISI and military to take the charge.