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WHO WAS BEHIND LAHORE 3/3 Terror Attacks

Terrorism on the march
Najmuddin A Shaikh



What should one make of the attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore? Theoretically, the team was being given the level of security normally reserved for heads of state. This was apparently one of the incentives the Pakistan Cricket Board had, with government approval, offered to its Sri Lankan counterpart to persuade it to send the team to Pakistan.

That this high level of security failed to prevent the attack is perhaps understandable. Sadly, even the best security agencies in the world with the most advanced technologies concede that attacks by determined terrorists who are prepared to sacrifice their lives can very rarely be prevented. Such attacks are thwarted for the most part by human intelligence — by penetrating terrorist cells and getting information about the planned attack before it is launched. Clearly, our agencies had not been able to infiltrate the homegrown terrorist organisation that carried out this attack.

What is not understandable is why of this motley group of 12 or 13 people operating in the heart of Lahore, not one could be captured despite the fact that the attack lasted, by all accounts, for more than 30 minutes, and despite the fact that apart from the security squad of the Sri Lankan team, a whole phalanx of police officials was available in Gaddafi Stadium within hailing distance of the site of the incident
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The incident has been compared to the November 2008 Mumbai attack. There, the Indian authorities were lambasted for the poor security that had allowed the multiple-target attack to go forward. Ajmal Kasab and his colleague could wreak havoc at the Railway station because guarding the station were poorly armed, poorly trained and totally unprepared railway police officials Limited or no security was available at the other venues attacked by the terrorists.

The principal targets of the terrorists were Indian as the shoot-up at the railway station and the hospital showed, even though the assailants at the hotels and the Jewish centre did try to focus on foreigners. Kasab was captured and his colleague killed after they continued their rampage through the streets of Mumbai. All the points attacked were “soft targets”.

Indian security could not prevent the Mumbai carnage from continuing over a 72-hour period but ultimately they killed all the identified terrorists and captured one. Question marks — serious ones — remain about the part played by so far unidentified local accomplices and about other matters. India’s image as a country safe for tourists and for investment was dented but not very seriously. It was able to portray itself as a victim of foreign terrorism and as a country that was determined to create the security apparatus needed to prevent a recurrence of such attacks
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Lahore was very different. In Lahore’s Liberty Square, the dozen assailants hit a “hard” well-protected target. We had trained security squads presumably well equipped and well placed to call upon reinforcements if needed. Yet the assailants all escaped after shooting up, over a 30-minute period, the Sri Lankan team’s convoy and killing many of the police escort.

If India’s lax security deserves condemnation, what should one say about Pakistan’s security apparatus?

In Lahore, the targets were not Pakistanis, even though the fatalities flowing from the attack were all Pakistanis. This was a deliberate assault on foreigners who had, as a gesture of friendship, chosen to ignore security concerns to foster cricketing ties between Pakistan and Sri Lanka and to show a measure of South Asian solidarity. It was primarily designed to reinforce Pakistan’s image as a country that was too dangerous to visit and as a country that had become the centre of terrorism in the r
egion.

To say that Pakistan’s already tarnished international image has been further damaged is a statement of the obvious. The Sri Lankan team has departed. The New Zealanders have cancelled their proposed tour. The International Cricket Council has called into question the original plan to have Pakistan co-host the World Cup in 2011. World over, travel advisories have or will be issued warning against visiting not only already identified troubled areas of our country but now also what was hitherto, relatively, the safest city in Pakistan.

But there is a second consequence. It has brought home to the residents of Lahore how easily the chaos and anarchy of the Swat valley can, in the absence of resolute action, come to prevail in their beloved city, the cultural capital of Pakistan. To say that it has shaken irrevocably the trust Lahorites have in the city’s and the country’s security apparatus and made them apprehensive of what the future holds may be somewhat exaggerated. But is it?

The IG Punjab announced after the attack that caches of arms usually employed by terrorists — rocket launchers, suicide jackets, hand grenades, time bombs etc — were recovered from 14 different locations in the city. Surely these were not all related to the Liberty Square incident. Surely these point to preparations for a whole series of other attacks that are now in the planning stages by organisations that are both professional and determined.

We can speculate all we want about foreign involvement and learned commentators can point to the fact that the Indians had warned the Sri Lankans against undertaking the sort of tour that the Indians themselves had cancelled, and that the Indians are seeking to retaliate for the Mumbai attack. Statements that verge on gloating have come from New Delhi and helped foster this sort of thinking
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But if we want to face reality, we must accept that this was a homegrown attack. If it had foreign financing and perhaps some foreign planning, the finger should point not only towards our eastern border but also to the north of our own country. It is there that those who found shelter now find themselves under pressure, which can best be relieved if their sympathisers in Punjab — and there are plenty of those — can be motivated to create chaos and anarchy in the capital of the country’s largest province.

Nobody will want to see a linkage between Swat and Liberty Square. Perhaps there is none. Perhaps there is force in the argument that extremist groups in our country have differing ideologies and different objectives and there exists no organic linkage between them. This is not a view I share. There are linkages if only because those recruited and trained by one group but then found operationally ineffective have no option, given their limited employability, but to join another such group.

But even if no links exist, we must recognise that the situation in Swat and the tribal areas which foreign and central Punjab militants helped create was for all extremists an indication of what a determined and ruthless minority could with the right connections achieve even against the most recalcitrant ethnic group in Pakistan.


For the moderates, it has been a clear indication of the failure of state authority, prompting as it has always done over the centuries in the Indus Valley a desire to find an accommodation with the invader, be the invasion physical or ideological.

Do we recognise this? Do we see Liberty Square as the first effort to drop the next domino after Swat? If we do, can we muster the will to establish the unity of purpose among all power centres that is a prerequisite for fighting this threat? Let us hope we do
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The writer is a former foreign secretary
 
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As per dawn.com, indications are that the Lashkar that did it. See

DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Investigators see LeT footprints in Lahore attack

From the link you provided:

But asked specifically about the involvement of Lashkar in the Lahore attack, Mr Malik said he could not reveal anything at the moment. ‘The preliminary report will be finalised by Friday. At this moment I can only say that reports regarding the involvement of LeT are speculation,’ he added.

Dont take things out of context like your indian news anchors do. wait for the report tomorrow.
 
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From the link you provided:

But asked specifically about the involvement of Lashkar in the Lahore attack, Mr Malik said he could not reveal anything at the moment. ‘The preliminary report will be finalised by Friday. At this moment I can only say that reports regarding the involvement of LeT are speculation,’ he added.

Dont take things out of context like your indian news anchors do. wait for the report tomorrow.

What u've quoted is as per mr malik.


This is as per DAWN

Sketchy details of the initial probe suggest that a group of headstrong Lashkar activists, who went underground and remained in hiding in Rawalpindi after the crackdown on Lashkar and Jamaatud Dawa in December, had acted on their own and carried out the attack.

Although officials would not confirm the involvement of Lashkar, they categorically ruled out the possibility of involvement of the Indian spy agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) or the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as no evidence has been found so far pointing in their direction.
 
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Terrorism on the march
Najmuddin A Shaikh



That this high level of security failed to prevent the attack is perhaps understandable. Sadly, even the best security agencies in the world with the most advanced technologies concede that attacks by determined terrorists who are prepared to sacrifice their lives can very rarely be prevented. Such attacks are thwarted for the most part by human intelligence — by penetrating terrorist cells and getting information about the planned attack before it is launched. Clearly, our agencies had not been able to infiltrate the homegrown terrorist organisation that carried out this attack.


It was NOT a suicide attack. This is obvious from the total period of attack and the fact that they didn't try to persist. They certainly did it with their security having the priority. If it would have been suicide one, no one could have lived. So, this point fails to support security system.

What is not understandable is why of this motley group of 12 or 13 people operating in the heart of Lahore, not one could be captured despite the fact that the attack lasted, by all accounts, for more than 30 minutes, and despite the fact that apart from the security squad of the Sri Lankan team, a whole phalanx of police officials was available in Gaddafi Stadium within hailing distance of the site of the incident
.

The incident has been compared to the November 2008 Mumbai attack. There, the Indian authorities were lambasted for the poor security that had allowed the multiple-target attack to go forward. Ajmal Kasab and his colleague could wreak havoc at the Railway station because guarding the station were poorly armed, poorly trained and totally unprepared railway police officials Limited or no security was available at the other venues attacked by the terrorists.

The principal targets of the terrorists were Indian as the shoot-up at the railway station and the hospital showed, even though the assailants at the hotels and the Jewish centre did try to focus on foreigners. Kasab was captured and his colleague killed after they continued their rampage through the streets of Mumbai. All the points attacked were “soft targets”.

Please note the following -

In Mumbai, a whole group of terrorists was killed and Ajmal Kasab was arrested within few minutes of attack. There was nothing special arrangement that day and the system could do this with its ordinary arrangements.

In Lahore, the convoy was having best level of security. Unlike Mumbai, the police force present was concentrated. It was elite force. The weapons were advanced. But still, NOT A SINGLE terrorist took damage in any form.

This does not mean that Pakistani police are not capable, but this certainly means that there are some serious flaws at higher level.
 
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Omar

Once again brother, why are you so desperate to have people think Indian did this and NOT the pakistani islamist allied with Al-qaida??
 
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From the link you provided:

But asked specifically about the involvement of Lashkar in the Lahore attack, Mr Malik said he could not reveal anything at the moment. ‘The preliminary report will be finalised by Friday. At this moment I can only say that reports regarding the involvement of LeT are speculation,’ he added.

Dont take things out of context like your indian news anchors do. wait for the report tomorrow.

Other snippets from that from that link:

ISLAMABAD: Investigators are zeroing in on the footprints of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), according to preliminary investigations by the Joint Investigation Team probing Tuesday’s attack on Sri Lankan cricketers at Lahore’s Liberty Chowk.

Sketchy details of the initial probe suggest that a group of headstrong Lashkar activists, who went underground and remained in hiding in Rawalpindi after the crackdown on Lashkar and Jamaatud Dawa in December, had acted on their own and carried out the attack.

Although officials would not confirm the involvement of Lashkar, they categorically ruled out the possibility of involvement of the Indian spy agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) or the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as no evidence has been found so far pointing in their direction.

Rehman Malik: Later he told reporters in Parliament that al Qaeda could be involved in the attack. He also said so far investigations had not yet found any Indian connection.
The investigators involved in the probe believe that the attackers got their commando training in the camp of Lashkar’s operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi ...
Investigators believed that one of the attackers had assured the chief suspect in Mumbai terror attacks that his followers would take revenge against Pakistani authorities for his arrest and subsequent trial.

The authorities have also approached Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, who is currently under detention at his Johar Town residence in Lahore, to help authorities in tracking down the attackers.
 
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Bad nuz for all the islamists on this forum who have tried to deflect attention away from themselves and point fingers at R&AW, Mossad, CIA and Aliens from another dimension:



Banned religious outfit involved in 3/3: report
Updated at: 0700 PST, Friday, March 06, 2009
LAHORE: The investigations, being carried out into attacks on Sri Lankan players in Lahore, have linked a banned religious outfit with the incident, Geo News reported on early Friday.

The militants, involved in Lahore attacks, had links with al-Qaeda and Afghanistan, the probe found.

According to sources, four associates of terrorists were present around Gaddafi Stadium before carrying out gun and grenade assault on Sri Lankan players while some terrorists belonged to Lahore and others had come from tribal areas.

Militants would be using word ‘Station’ to identify Sri Lankan players bus, probe also revealed.

Intelligence agencies have traced the whereabouts of suspects and they are likely to make major arrests in some days to come, sources said.
 
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Bad nuz for all the islamists on this forum who have tried to deflect attention away from themselves and point fingers at R&AW, Mossad, CIA and Aliens from another dimension:

It is likely that there is serious inside involvement. Consider

1. The mysterious phone call that got the route changed at the last moment. The caller was obviously intimately familiar with police procedures.

2. The fact that the all terrorists escaped unhurriedly. Not a single terrorist was hurt. Despite the Liberty Market police station being only about 50 metres away, the terrorists continued their unhindered shooting spree for 20 minutes. And this was supposed to be a VVIP convoy.

3. The "warning report" alleging that RAW will target the SL team, apparently signed by Malik Muhammad Iqbal, Additional IGP. This man must be considered a prime suspect. As per a report on BBC Urdu (see Raw Attack Sri Lanka Cricket Team In Lahore - Pakistani Defence Forum) Salman Taseer says the report was never given to him, but was leaked to the media. Senior Journalist Ansar Abbasi of Jang must also be considered a suspect.
 
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There are many reatrds in India who are against any thing which Muslim or British rulers have left

And your point would be,,,, What??

That it's OK for Pakistanis to be equally if not more retarded?? Is it a competition of who is more retarded??
 
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No question of Indian involvement, Colombo tells Islamabad

B. Muralidhar Reddy

It seeks independent enquiry into Lahore attack

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has officially conveyed to Pakistan that there is absolutely no reason to suspect any Indian involvement in the Lahore terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team on Tuesday. It has asked for an independent enquiry to get to the truth behind the horrific incident.

According to informed official sources, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogolollagama told Pakistan’s top leaders during his talks in Islamabad on Wednesday: “India is fully with us. There is no question of it being involved in the terror attack.”

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was on a state visit to Nepal the day the Lahore attack took place, directed his Foreign Minister to rush to Islamabad to hold talks with Pakistani leaders. Mr. Bogolollagama was also asked to convey Sri Lanka’s condolences and deepest sympathies to the families of the Pakistani security officers and civilians killed in the attack.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani telephoned Mr. Rajapaksa in Kathmandu and profusely apologised to the people and the government of Sri Lanka for the harm caused to some members of the cricket team in the attack. They assured Mr. Rajapaksa that Islamabad was determined to combat terrorism and would work with the international community and Sri Lanka to defeat terrorism.

In response, Mr. Rajapaksa strongly condemned the Lahore attack and asserted that terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, should be countered with a firm resolve worldwide. The Sri Lankan President cut short his visit to Nepal by a day and returned to Colombo on Tuesday evening.

The impression within the Sri Lankan government, based on accounts from cricketers seated near the team bus driver, Mehar Mohammad Khalil, is that the primary objective of the terror attack might not have been to kill the Sri Lankan cricketers. Given the circumstances of the attack and the heavy weapons the terrorists had, they could have easily blown up the coach and the whole cricket team. The plan might have been to target the driver and kidnap the cricketers. But as things developed, some of the world’s best cricketers were in mortal danger and escaped fortuitously, with fairly minor injuries, thanks to the driver’s heroism.

Was the LTTE involved in the Lahore terror strike? While considering it unlikely, Colombo has not ruled out the possibility.

The Hindu : Front Page : No question of Indian involvement, Colombo tells Islamabad
 
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In the end it will be Pakistani's who will make a fool out of themselves by constantly accusing and then denying.

They kept denying Pakistani's launched the Mumbai massacre, and finally had to eat their words, and now they are jumping the guns to accuse India, and eventually even for this they will have to eat their words.

Stop your denial. Terrorists are striking in your country, because your successive govt's have till date give them a free hand in Pakistan.
 
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Pakistan rules out Indian hand

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Thursday the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore could have been the work of the Al Qaeda and dismissed suggestions that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or India was behind it.

Rehman Malik, head of the Interior Ministry, told journalists here that there was no evidence to suggest that the LTTE carried out the attack. He also ruled out media suggestions of Indian involvement, saying there was no evidence to back such theories. He said the preliminary probe was being finalised.

Severely embarrassed by the attack and the failure of the police to react swiftly to it, Pakistani officials are desperate for a breakthrough, but it is proving elusive.

The police are still to announce any arrests, but more than 250 suspects have been rounded up from Lahore and its environs.

The Hindu : Front Page : Pakistan rules out Indian hand
 
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This is for the Islamist sympathizers on this forum who want ot divert attention from themselves -- the only people you have duped is yourselves, we know you for what you are and for what you think of Islam -- And we won't forget and we will not forgive.



Militants blow up Rehman Baba’s shrine




Friday, March 06, 2009

By Ghulam Dastageer

PESHAWAR: Unidentified miscreants blew up the mausoleum of the most-revered mystic poet of the Pakhtun land Rehman Baba in the wee hours of Thursday by planting four bombs inside the structure of the shrine.

The blast badly damaged the shrine of the 17th century Sufi poet. However, no casualty was reported while the followers were also present on the spot when the blast occurred at 5:10 am. The bombs were planted at the four pillars of the white marble tomb.

The residents told The News that militants had earlier threatened the administrators of the mausoleum through anonymous letters and cellphone calls, asking them to stop women from visiting the shrine.

Nevertheless, Superintendent of Police (city) Aijaz Abid said the management of the shrine did not bring the threatening calls into the notice of the concerned police concerned.

The affairs of the shrine, which lies under the jurisdiction of Yakatoot police station, recently re-named as Agha Meerjani Shah police station, are run by the provincial Auqaf department. Talking to The News by phone, Ijaz said a militants’ syndicate based in Bara, Khyber Agency was behind the attack, as they had clearly shown their opposition to mystic tendencies in Islam.

It is pertinent to recall that the Mangal Bagh-led Lashkar-e-Islam attacked a shrine in Sheikhan village on the outskirts of the provincial metropolis on March 3, 2008, leaving 18 people dead and six others injured. The militants had attacked the shrine in Sheikhan with rockets and other sophisticated weapons
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Hazarkhwani Union Council nazim Hidayatullah said that the tribal jirga of the Khalil-Momand tribes would hold a protest demonstration on Ring Road today (Friday) to mark their indignation at the shrine bombing.

It merits a mention here that Abdul Rehman, popularly-known as Rehman Baba, belonged to the Momand tribe. Talking to media persons at the blast site, the nazim came down hard on the government for not deputing security guards at the shrine.

“The tragic incident would have been averted had the government ensured proper security at the shrine,” he said. But the SP city said that it was next to impossible for them to depute policemen at all the religious places in Peshawar.

“You know how deteriorated the law and order is in Peshawar. We’ve not enough force to provide security even to the public. But we’ll definitely work out plans to ensure fail-safe security at the religious places, including shrines,” he resolved
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Shrines of the mystic figures and faith healers have been under attack by militants for the last one-and-a-half year, who believe that visiting shrines and practices of the faith healing are against the injunctions of Islam.

A similar attack was launched inside the shrine of Hazrat Abdush Shakoor, lovingly called Malang Baba, on December 18 last when suspected militants exploded two bombs in the mausoleum, damaging the minarets, walls and doors of the shrine.

Meanwhile, the Afghan government condemned the cowardly attack on the shrine.
A statement issued by the Afghan Foreign Office demanded of the NWFP government to take prompt action against the perpetrators.

The Awami National Party (ANP) also condemned the incident and said that the government would bring the culprits to justice. Similarly, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan chairperson Asma Jahangir also condemned the bombing at the mausoleum.

In a statement issued from Lahore on Thursday, she said: “The bombing at the mausoleum cannot be condemned strongly enough. Rehman Baba is the national poet not only of the Pakhtun people, but of the whole of Pakistan. It is ironic that the mausoleum of a poet advocating peace and tolerance has been targeted by the militants.”


APP adds: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has strongly condemned the bombing of Rehman Baba’s shrine. He asked the authorities concerned to undertake a thorough inquiry into the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice.
 
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