Gunmen Fire on Sri Lanka Cricket Team in Pakistan, Pakistan accuses India

Gunmen attacked Sri Lanka’s cricket squad Tuesday ahead of a match with home team Pakistan, the latest sign of the government’s weakening grip over the country’s security.

The early morning attack in Pakistan’s cosmopolitan city of Lahore killed five policemen and injured six players, after about a dozen men fired assault weapons at vehicles carrying the Sri Lankan team and their guards, according to Pakistani and Sri Lankan officials. The Sri Lankan team captain, Mahela Jayawardene, was among those injured. By early afternoon, the team had been airlifted from the cricket stadium and had announced it was canceling the tour.

Six Sri Lankan cricketers and their British assistant coach are wounded as gunmen attack their bus as it drives under police escort in the Pakistani city of Lahore. Video courtesy of Reuters.

“They were our guests,” Pakistan’s Sports Minister Aftab Shah Gilani told NDTV, an Indian channel. “We are very sorry about this. It’s really shocking.”

Pakistani police have arrested four suspects, but didn’t offer details about who had carried out the ambush armed with Kalashnikovs, grenades and rocket launchers. No group had claimed responsibility immediately following the attack.

The incident dealt another blow to a government already reeling from security setbacks and various other crises. Tuesday’s attack is likely to heighten worries about the nuclear-armed nation, as it reinforces an impression that the government is getting weaker while an Islamic militancy grows stronger, says Hasan Askari Rizvi, a political and defense analyst who lives in Lahore.

via Gunmen Fire on Sri Lanka Cricket Team in Pakistan – WSJ.com.

What is the problem here? Bangladesh has postponed their series against Pakistan, as they had to travel to the country. So. ehh, this means the Talibans/Islamists/whoever they are have again won: normal life is displaced by terror. What is more, Pakistan has NO IDEA about who did this:

Lahore police chief Habibur Rehman said officers raided locations in and around the city and arrested “some suspects” at a hostel, but he added, “So far, we have not made any headway toward the perpetrators.”

What is more: a survivor has accused Pakistani police of fleeing

The former England batsman Chris Broad (…) slammed armed officers for leaving his group like “sitting ducks” as the killers sprayed bullets at his van and the coach carrying the Sri Lanka Test team in Lahore.

Broad said: “There was not a sign of a policeman anywhere. They had clearly left the scene.” The attackers – with hand grenades, machine guns and rocket launchers – fired for 15 minutes before calmly walking away.

Did they know that it was going to happen? Were they in some kind of agreement with the attackers? Or seeing five police officers had been killed were simply terrified?

So as they don’t know who did this, Pakistan has accused India of the attack. The Navy Minister, Sardar Nabil Ahmed Gabol, who belongs to the same political party as Pakistani PM, Zardari, considers this as a war declaration and previously the Punjab’s Governor has said that this bares “the same pattern as the Mumbay attacks, the same terrorists that attacked Mumbay, they were trained people”. So, India has not only had the disgrace of having people killed in its soil, now they have to bare also that the country who has been sheltering those same terrorists, accuses them of the terrorist attack. This is absolutely disgusting… No at all…

Angel and Ekawaaz have more on this terrible attack.