Terror hits lahore.

A.V.

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Dear Musalman,

Please no cussing. Lets keep the Forum Clean.
atul thanks
the problem has being duly addressed please report the dfi team in future if you find objectionable words being used, do not quote such messages
thanks.
 

A.V.

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Pitch dark in Pakistan

Till yesterday, to most of us involved in the business of sport, Munich 1972 was a bit of history. A savage, brutal, shameful part of history, but history all the same. The horrific events of that one September day at the Summer Olympics, officials and sportspersons said repeatedly, could not, would not happen again.

Though some mention the attack at Centennial Park at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, that was never really quite the same. Eric Rudolph, an ex-US military man, wanted to embarrass the American government for its stand on allowing ‘abortion on demand’. He was a lone ranger.

The Black September terrorists of Munich, on the other hand, were linked to the Palestine movement. They took hostage and killed 11 Israeli athletes and officials in a carefully planned, well-funded military style attack. Over 20 hours or so, the eight Arab terrorists made specific political demands that they probably knew would not be met. They tried anyway. They failed, but took with them 12 lives (a German police officer also died) and left behind the blackest day in the history of sport.

For many reasons, no one believed that September 5, 1972 would be repeated. After all, even in a world gone horribly wrong, didn’t disparate terrorist groups with widely differing agendas repeatedly state that sport and sportspersons would never be targeted?

The LTTE said as much, even celebrating every big Lankan win with enthusiasm matching that of Sinhalese Lankans. The only time the LTTE got ‘involved’ was when Australian umpire Darrel Hair reportedly received unspecified death threats just ahead of the 1999 World Cup for no-balling Sri Lankan Tamil cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan repeatedly over his action. Those reports, though, were never substantiated and Hair, forever doomed to be controversial, is still very much around.

In Pakistan, too, it was pretty much the same. Spokespersons for various terror outfits based there said similar things and whether anyone believed them or not, sport, or more specifically, cricket was never attacked. So we went ahead and played, relying on a kind of invisible, unspoken immunity that sport offered.

And then Tuesday happened in Lahore. The stuff of nightmares come to bloody life. Sri Lanka’s cricket team was specifically targeted. And hell, it had to be planned. Even if you take into account that Indian cricketers get unprecedented security in Pakistan, the Lankan cricketers would not have had much less.

Sri Lanka were the one major cricketing nation that had graciously agreed to visit Pakistan, after a barren year for cricket in that country. The West Indians, the Australians and the Indians had refused to tour. The Champions Trophy that was scheduled to be held there had been postponed, almost certainly cancelled because of the security situation and a threat perception. The Pakistanis were determined to prove to the world that they could still be hosts and Sri Lanka had agreed to help them gain global legitimacy.

Now though, life has changed forever. There is no chance of gaining any legitimacy. Not now. Not in the conceivable future. On Tuesday morning, a Pakistani sports journalist and friend responding to an email asking if he was okay and what exactly was going on there sent back a terse, anguished reply: “Thanks, we don’t exist.” That’s more or less what the rest of the world — cricketing or otherwise — believes of Pakistan, especially after Tuesday.

Munich, 37 years ago, was different in a couple of ways. First, the attackers were known; second, they had a specific agenda. Till now, no one has claimed responsibility for the Lahore attacks and then again, no one knows why whoever did it did it. Unless it was to further isolate Pakistan as a cricketing nation and as a country.

In which case, sadly, they’ve succeeded where the Black September terrorists failed in their mission. From what South African coach Mickey Arthur, New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori and India skipper M.S. Dhoni said on Tuesday, they all effectively believe that cricket in Pakistan is a thing of the past. Or something for a distant future — one they are as yet unable to see.

Former Pakistan captain Inzamam ul Haq’s statements were even more telling. Inzamam, a gentle giant of a man, who can be extremely taciturn for the most, was painfully vocal when he spoke of the repercussions of Lahore. He said the problem wasn’t just that teams wouldn’t travel to Pakistan, but that the danger was also that countries might be wary of hosting Pakistan for fear of what danger that would bring to them and resulting collateral damage.

At this point of time though, it’s too early to say what happens next. After all, what happened on Tuesday has no precedent, not in cricket, not for us.

But suffice to say that cricket will never be the same again. Sport will never be the same again. And unfortunately, Pakistan — and the way the rest of the cricketing world views Pakistan — will never be the same again.
 

thakur_ritesh

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i realised that there could be "n" number of conspiracy theories floated around that the pakistani investigative agencies would be like a dog following his tail round and round, and at the end there would be nothing in their hands, i fell off reading this one response by a pakistani and thought this was a must share with all of you.

have a good time reading and dont forget to laugh!

lol

I think it was the Australians/South Africans/Kiwi's/English in a combined plot. They don't want to play the world cup in Pakistan so they staged this.

I also think It could have been done by the lizards in human shape which are ordered around by the freemasons in recenge for PDF opening a topic to expose freemason arcitechture in Pakistan. Ceasar agrees.
 

musalman

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Dear Musalman,

Please no cussing. Lets keep the Forum Clean.
LOL Okay :) but u have to bear in mind I am Lahoria and Punjabi :) they are just slip
 

Atul

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no hard feelings brother.:)
 

Rage

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Just one of the many examples of the deranged and convoluted smear campaign being run by a section of the pakistani media in a pathetic attempt to malign and frame India- and the bizarre conclusions drawn thereof:


India's Revenge: RAW Attacks Cricketers in Pakistan

by M. Hussain

In a terrorist attack reminiscent of the Mumbai attacks, 6 Sri Lankan cricket players were lightly injured while a third umpire was critically injured while on their bus. The incident took place outside the Qaddafi Stadium in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province. Five people have been confirmed dead from the security detail. While the Mumbai attack showed confusion and cowering Indian security forces, the Pakistani reaction, in contrast was swift, taking casualties but effectively repulsing an organized and surpise attack.

The attack was well organized and involved two bomb blasts followed by small arms firing. While five security guards were killed and several injured, the security forces managed to repulse the attack. The attackers numbered 12 and came on motorcycles, fired indiscriminately and then left, leaving back ammunition bags and weapons. The firing continued for about 25 minutes.

Bags of ammunition was left in front of Al-Fatah store in neighborhood of Gulberg. Weapons left behind included 84mm Carl Gustav recoiless rifles, controversially a standard issue weapon to the Indian Army, a weapon not typically found with the Taliban.

Carl Gustavs are of Swedish origin and exported to the Indian army and never exported to the Mujahideen. RPG-22 rocket propelled anti-tank grenades, another standard issue for the Indian special forces (and another weapon less typical for the Taliban who more typically prefer RPG-7s) was also used.
A senior defense correspondent, while remaining anonymous, states that the choice of weapons as well as other evidence, clearly indicates India's hand in the present attack and is being seen as a "response" to the Mumbai attacks.

Terrorist attacks perpetrated by RAW have many previous precedents but given the present sensitivities and the Indian reaction to the Mumbai attacks, they could prove to be a catalyst for heightened tensions between the two belleaguered neighbors.

Sri Lankan cricketers Kumar Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis, Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavithana received minor wounds. The Third Umpire is seriously injured and The cricket team has been recalled by Sri Lanka in light of these attacks.

Gavin Scovell, a sports producer and a witness to the attacks applauded the security detail for their rapid and calm response. In a press release, he stated:

"The guards were brilliant. They weren't panicking. They were very calm," Scovell said. "It must have been a terrifying experience, but they handled it well."

Meanwhile, two unidentified bodies have been found but it has not been released yet if these are of the attackers or of civilians.


http://www.grandestrategy.com/2009/03/9988123-indias-revenge-raw-attacks.html

x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x


1- Notice how the language used is almost vitrolic-- perhaps borderline pugnacious, and teeming with bellicosity- all without proof! Even more astounding, it paints an entirely different picture from what actually happened: which is that there was a MASSIVE security failure (reminiscent of what is happening nationwide in Pakistan) and that the assailants caught the security forces with their pants down. Not only were their objectives achieved (this was not a fidayeen attack but intended to deliver an unmistakable message) without a single casualty to their own, they assassinated 6 policemen - equipped with pistols rather than AK 47's - and, even better, then escaped.

2- Pay particular attention to the statement: "Carl Gustavs are of Swedish origin and exported to the Indian army and never exported to the Mujahideen." Notice how the author conveniently fails to mention the fact that the Swedish Bofors Dynamics-produced Gustavs are standard issue as projectile launchers to the Pakistani army as well (assuming the Wikipedia section on both the p'stani Armed Forces and the Carl Gustav recoilless rife are reliable sources). The weapon was also used recently by Canada's Princess Patricia Light Infantry regiment in anti-terrorist operations in Afghanistan. It's improved and later variant, the M3 MAAWS was used extensively by the US 75th Ranger regiment in Afghanistan under the aegis RAWS (Ranger Anti-Tank Weapon System) and by US Special Operations Forces (that interestingly are training the Pakistani SSG in the WoT). And given the fact that tens of thousands of 'lost' US small arms may have fallen into Taliban hands because of slacking inventory controls (See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/02/11/ST2009021103361.html), it is no doubt that there are a multiplicity of potential sources from which these weapons may have come.

Also, considering the fact that the Taliban have access to vast caches of weapons left behind by the Soviets in Afghanistan, it is not inconceivable that the late 40's era Gustav- widely distributed among the mujahideen by the US through its proxy Pakistan during the Afghan war- may still be available in vast tranches in the region.

3- Pay even more attention to the even more ludicrous statement "RPG-22 rocket propelled anti-tank grenades, another standard issue for the Indian special forces (and another weapon less typical for the Taliban who more typically prefer RPG-7s) was also used." The RPG-22, which is a single-shot disposable ATRL is 'standard' issue' to almost every FSU or former Soviet satellite state because they were produced en mass in the 80's. Interestingly, production ceased in 1993 because armour penetration was found to be insufficient and reloading time long. Today, large quantities of the weapon are found in former Soviet battlegrounds- and a prime location for these discarded/abandoned projectile launchers would be Afghanistan where the 9-year war was fought during much of the 80's.

No intelligence agency in it's right mind would willingly provide a proxy a single-shot disposable ATRL that could later be traced to its ordinance. Not when it is one of the few official users in the immediate neighbourhoodand the target country largely employs a less sophisticated, low-cost variant of the same (RPG-7).

P.S: The Taliban 'typically prefer' RPG-7's, which is not to say that they do not also employ RPG-22's at all. And one reason for their 'preference' is that the Pakistani Army (who receive the RPG-7's manufactured in vast quantities at the Pakistan Ordinance Factory) and the Afghan National Police (who have been accused of selling their weapons to the Taliban in the past) stock RPG-7's in bulk.

4- Do Pakistanis seriously believe that ANY intelligence organization would be foolish enough to leave behind weapons and ammunition that could be used in its implication? On the one hand Pakistanis blame the all-powerful, omnipotent RAW for EVERYTHING: from sectarian violence to the Baluchestan issue to suicide explosions in Dera Ismael Khan. On the other hand, they berate the 'incompetence' and ineptitude of the same organization! Do Pakistanis even realize that such a position is untenable? A thing cannot be one and its opposite at the same time.

5- A further point to ponder: would India be willing to engage itself in an activity that could potentially implicate it for the very same reasons it is now trying to garner- and succeeding in it- world opinion against Pakistan to isolate and coerce it into taking action against the culprits of an even more vicious and heinous incident in the same right?

6- Now consider the motives an agency like the ISI under tremendous international and domestic pressure would have to stage an attack like this: firstly, it takes some of the heat off the organization beset by woes and pressure over its alleged involvement in Mumbai and, preceding that, its covert support and sheltering of Taliban senior leaders abroad; it allows for them to 'implicate' the RAW and India in what it perceives as an implication itself over the Mumbai attacks in tit-for-tat fashion, mitigate the opinions of some senior p'stani leaders who wish to rein in the nefarious activities of the organization-- even while the country fights a dialectical civil war impeded by these very same activities- and it allows the creation of an image-that now no doubt will widely be disseminated in the international media- that the civilian government, despite its successes in negotiating a peace deal, is losing control of the country: a perfect environment for a military takeover (not that we would mind); thirdly, and most importantly, if this results in the framing of RAW, it will substantially alleviate some of the world opinion that India has brought down to bear on Pakistan- the two incidents will come to be seen and as yet another in a series of pusillanimous acts in this proxy war the two organizations are engaging in against each other: India will no longer have the diplomatic upper hand and the moral high ground in int'l rhetoric- after all India is simply getting a taste of its own medicine- and its whole campaign of the international isolation of Pakistan, media war, etc etc will come to an abrupt halt.

The speculative sh*t swings both ways.... and sometimes it swings one way more than the other.

Rage
 

ahmedsid

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Pakistani channel airs visuals of terrorists escaping after Lahore attack

Pakistani channel airs visuals of terrorists escaping after Lahore attack
Islamabad: A Pakistani TV news channel Wednesday aired dramatic visuals of the terrorists who attacked the Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore escaping from the spot on motorcycles and on foot.

The four sets of visuals Geo TV aired were captured by CCTV cameras in the lanes around the Liberty market area near the Gaddafi Stadium where a group of terrorists, said to number 12, sprayed bullets on the Sri Lanka team bus.

"The exclusive footage reveals that attackers carried out the heinous act with full impunity. They started firing indiscriminately at the cricketers' bus at 8.39 a.m. on March 3 and managed to flee from the spot at 8.46 a.m," Geo TV said in a posting on its website.

"The attackers, as shown in the footage, faced no hindrance and kept lurking about Liberty Chowk area freely. They came toward Firdous market and used the same route for exit. The footage shows attackers in groups who were carrying heavy bags.

"According to CCTV footage, attackers had sophisticated weapons. Despite being a red zone area of the city, no security arrangements were seen in the footage. The modus operandi of the attackers reminds one of Mumbai attacks. They carried backpacks stuffed with dried fruit, mineral water and wanted to hijack the bus of Sri Lankan cricketers," the channel said.

One of the visuals showed two armed terrorists running 50 metres down a lane to where another man waited on a motorcycle. The rider kick starts the machine, the other two get on and the motorcycle speeds away.

Another visual showed a terrorist brandishing his weapon as he ran up a deserted street.

The visuals seemed to give the lie to the claims of the police that they had cordoned off the area immediately after the 25-minute attack began at around 8.30 a.m.

The attack site was also close to a police station.

Soon after the attack, the authorities claimed to have arrested four men from Lahore's Model Town area for their alleged involvement in the attack.

Pakistani authorities said Wednesday that 60 people had been arrested for their alleged involvement in the attack, which left eight people dead and six players and their assistant coach injured.

The incident prompted the Sri Lankan government to call off the tour of Pakistan and the squad was flown home Tuesday evening.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service
 

ahmedsid

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Lahore attackers were home-grown terrorists: Pak media

Lahore attackers were home-grown terrorists: Pak media



Islamabad: The attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team is proof that "the writ of our state is threadbare" and signals the requiem for international sporting events in Pakistan, a leading English newspaper said Wednesday, with another saying the assault "highlights the folly of negotiating with those bent on destroying our way of life".

Both editorials were trenchant in their criticism of the government, saying the Tuesday attack in Lahore that injured six Sri Lankan players and killed eight Pakistanis could have been carried out by internal elements within the country and wondered at the intelligence lapses that resulted in the assault.

They also drew a parallel with the 26/11 Mumbai carnage, with one editorial saying there was a similarity between the two attacks and the other, tongue in cheek, saying the Lahore attackers "did not arrive by boat" - a reference to the Mumbai attackers arriving by sea.

"The world has once again seen that Pakistan is an unsafe place, no matter where you are or who you are. That terrorism has both home and succour here. That the writ of our state is threadbare," The News said in its editorial, headlined "Cricket - the requiem".

"On Tuesday March 3, 2009 we heard the requiem for international cricket in Pakistan, but we also heard the steady footfall of extremist forces as they march ever-nearer to power," it added.

The reference was to the peace deal between the North West Frontier Province government and the Taliban in return for enforcing Shariat laws in seven districts of the restive Swat region.

Noting that the prospect of Pakistan hosting international sporting events in future "vanishes", the editorial said: "Those who carped at the Australian refusal to tour here because of security concerns now have their comeuppance.

"Nobody is going to tour here for a very long time, be they cricketers, hockey players or players of tiddlywinks.

"Who will make inwards foreign investment into our businesses? Or run the relief agencies that support the refugees from our own internal warfare? Or provide training and support to our educationalists?" the editorial wondered.

As for the antecedents of the attackers, The News said: "One thing of which we may be certain is that they did not arrive by boat" even as it conceded that the "reality" was that it was "just as likely" to be an assault "by our own home-grown terrorist organizations as it is to have been made or facilitated by 'foreign hands'."

"There is no shortage of highly-competent well-armed and trained groups within our own borders capable of such an operation.

"They have no need of foreign assistance or foreign money - there are plenty of people here happy to finance them and offer logistical support," The News maintained.

It also pointed out that "another reality" of the attack was that it was carried out close to a police station "and that the attackers must have conducted a reconnaissance for them to set up a kill-zone - and nobody noticed?

"Nobody noticed that up to fourteen heavily armed men using at least three cars, as well as rickshaws and bicycles, were securing a road junction in the centre of Lahore? A reasonable person may infer from this that there was a failure of intelligence, both electronic and human," the editorial maintained.

According to Dawn, the attack was carried out by "internal or external elements who wish to either destabilise the Pakistan government or to further isolate it internationally".

"The (TV) footage shows all too clearly that this was an attack carried out by individuals who have received highly sophisticated combat training. Their approach was not dissimilar to that adopted by the Mumbai gunmen. Perhaps the same organisation is to blame for both tragedies," Dawn said in its editorial headlined "Tragedy in Lahore".

The assault also highlighted the "folly" of negotiating "with those bent on destroying our way of life.

"The peace deal, or capitulation, in Swat has been described by officialdom as a regional solution to a regional problem. This does not wash, it cannot fly.

"Militancy and terrorism are national problems that are not confined to a specific region. The obscurantists must be tackled head-on if we are to entertain any hope of redemption," the newspaper maintained.

"If the state resorts to negotiating with militants from a position of weakness, what we will get is disaster, across the board. The politicians need to wake up, bury the hatchet in the national good and rout the real enemy," the editorial added.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service
 

Singh

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Some troubling news...documents released indicating RAW's involvement!!
I don't know how legitimate this 2 page document is ?

If Pakistan indeed had this "reliable, secret" paper:
they should've publicised this news much earlier.
beefed up security.
involved US through back channels.
There is no doubt that this has been a goof up of the first order. Whether this is a genuine news article, routine document blaming Raw or whether this a cover is not clear as yet.

Pakistan if it officially accuses India then has the onus of proving it to the world, by merely releasing such documents to the media it is not doing favour to its international credibility. Take a leaf out of Indian diplomatic blitzkrieg, they had proof, they went for the jugular. IIRC official sources also said earlier that this a gun battle between 2 land grabbing groups, others said Raw is involved, some said raw is not, foreign hand not there, foreign hand there. ??.

If I am not wrong some Pakistanis still believe that 9/11 was the work of CIA, 26/11 work of Raw, so it is not tough to convince the domestic population of 3/3 being committed by Raw, this will be lapped up without protest.

The question whether Raw is involved or not is contentious wrt non-pakistani audience. There are enough statements, comments, news and views regarding Pakistan and India resp. which forces one to disbelieve Pakistani claims. To convince the international audience, it has to have evidence, convince its closest allies and get them on board, otherwise this demagoguery has the potential of dealing a death blow to their own credibility.

Indian media routinely publishes agency documents which speak of impending attacks, hijacks etc.

And if Pakistanis believe Raw is involved why do they find it hard to believe ISI, army or LeT were involved in 26/11 ?
Frankly, I find it hard to believe Raw is involved because of the reasons mentioned in an earlier post. But if it is frankly be afraid, be very afraid of this lethal, stealthily, highly efficient organisation.
 

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A nation divided: the hero who saved cricketers had 'jihadi martyr' brother

Pakistan is desperate for heroes and yesterday it found one in Mehar Mohammed Khalil, the bus driver whose quick thinking saved Sri Lanka’s cricket team and probably averted the biggest massacre of international sports stars since the 1972 Munich Olympics.

As the players pledged their eternal gratitude, one day after they were attacked by militants in Lahore, Pakistanis embraced Mr Khalil as a symbol of everything that they wished their country stood for: courage, hospitality, modesty and, of course, a love of cricket.

In many ways, he is a typical Pakistani. He lives with his parents, two brothers and their families in a small house that his grandfather built in an alleyway in Lahore’s congested Yat-eem Khana district.

After 22 years driving for the New Diamond travel agency, Mr Khalil, 38, earns 15,000 rupees (£132) a month, and spends much of it on educating his two sons and two daughters. He could be a poster boy for the secular, moderate face of Pakistan.

However, he is also typical in other ways that reflect the contradictions that exist in Pakistani identity: in 1995 his younger brother, Shakil, was killed fighting for a jihadist militant group in Indian–controlled Kashmir.

He is also a supporter of Jamaat-e-Islami – a legal Islamist political party that wants to impose Sharia across Pakistan and to use the army to kick India out of Kashmir.


“This attack would never have happened under Jamaat,” he told The Times, as he received a stream of wellwishers at home and posed for photographs with the Sri Lankan team shirt he was given by the grateful players.

None of this detracts from his heroics on Tuesday, when a dozen gunmen ambushed his bus as he was driving the Sri Lankan team to the Gaddafi Stadium for the second Test against Pakistan.

Over tea and biscuits, with neigh-bours hanging on to every word, he described hearing shooting on his left and seeing one gunman shoot dead a police outrider in front, while two more gunmen opened fire from the right. A fourth militant fired a rocket, which missed the bus, another threw a grenade, which did not detonate, then yet another stepped out of a white car in front and opened fire with a Kalashnikov, he said.

At that point, with the players screaming “Go! Go! Go!”, he pressed his foot on the accelerator and careered through the barrier of the stadium entrance to get the team to safety. “I felt that the Sri Lankan team were the guests of our country and it was a matter of honour,” he explained.

“That was the only thought in my mind. I don’t know if I’m a hero or not but I did it for my country.”

His country repaid him yesterday with a 500,000 rupee reward.

Like most Pakistanis, he condemned the attackers for destroying Pakistan’s international reputation as a sporting venue. “It’s my sincere wish that other countries’ teams will continue to come here,” he said.

But like most Pakistanis, he was also unwilling to consider the possibility that the attackers were home-grown, and appeared convinced that they were, in fact, from India.

“Their complexions were Indian-type,” he said. “They were definitely not Pakistani. Foreign forces are involved in this.” As he spoke, a relative whisked away a photograph of his dead brother, with a Kalashnikov rifle over his shoulder, a camouflage cap on his head and a radio in one hand.

Printed in Urdu across the photograph were the words “Mujahid martyred in Kashmir. Died in Udampur, India, 25 August 1995. Codename Abdullah.”


What the papers said

“International cricket is no longer possible in Pakistan; therefore we should stop accusing foreign teams of discriminating against Pakistan vis-à-vis India. The question here is of the survival of Pakistan, not of cricket.” The Daily Times: ‘Al-Qaeda strikes in Lahore’

“Those who carped at [the] Australian refusal to tour here due to security concerns now have their comeuppance. Nobody is going to tour here for a very long time, be they cricketers, hockey players or players of tiddlywinks,” The News: ‘Cricket, the requiem’

“The Liberty tragedy reflects a crisis of governance in Pakistan in general and Punjab in particular, a breakdown of law and order providing a golden opportunity to terrorists to hit at will . . . the Liberty attackers must be hunted and captured dead or alive” The Nation: ‘A fatal blow to the country’s image’

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5848096.ece
 

Singh

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Pakistan’s jihadists no fans of cricket

Lashkar-e-Taiba has long loathed the region’s most popular sport

Many seminaries prohibit their students from playing the game

The British gave Muslims the bat and snatched the sword, says LeT magazine

NEW DELHI: Days before the terror attack in Lahore, the powerful pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Mohammad lashed out at cricket, describing it as a distraction that needed to be curbed.

Tuesday’s attack likely had little to do with cricket or Sri Lanka. Its purpose was to demonstrate to the Pakistani state and civil society the costs of confronting the increasingly-powerful jihadist groups.

But the attack focusses attention on one of the more peculiar preoccupations of the jihadist movement in Pakistan: a loathing of cricket, which elements of the religious right claim is part of a plot to destroy Islam.

In the wake of the 2004 India-Pakistan cricket series, which generated enormous popular goodwill in both countries, the Lashkar-e-Taiba magazine, Zarb-e-Taiba, set about explaining that the sport was objectionable. “The British,” Zarb-e-Taiba argued in its April 2004 edition, “gave Muslims the bat, snatched the sword and said to them: ‘You take this bat and play cricket. Give us your sword. With its help we will kill you and rape your women’.”

“It is sad,” the magazine caustically noted, “that Pakistanis are committing suicide after losing cricket matches to India. But they are not sacrificing their lives to protect the honour of the raped Kashmiri women. To watch a cricket match, we would take a day off from work. But for jihad, we have no time!”

By contrast, Zarb-e-Taiba pointed to the case of the Islamists’ arch-foe Israel. “Israel,” it observed, “is a very tiny country. [But] it does not play cricket. Therefore, it is progressing. We should throw the bat and seize the sword and instead of hitting six or four, cut the throats of the Hindus and the Jews.”

Zarb-e-Taiba sternly added that “the sports of a mujahid are archery, horse-riding and swimming. Apart from these sports, every hobby is un-Islamic. The above are not just sports but exercises for jihad. Cricket is an evil and sinful sport. Under the intoxication of cricket, Pakistanis have forgotten that these Hindu players come from the same nation that had raped our mothers, sisters, daughters, wives and daughters-in-law.”

Islamists have often found occasion to rail against cricket in the years since that article appeared. Last year, the weekly al-Qalam attacked Pakistan’s plans to reform the madrasa programme which, among other things, envisaged the initiation of an inter-seminary cricket tournament. It described the proposed tournament as “evil.” “We, the ulema of the Deoband school will have nothing to do with this tournament,” al-Qalam’s editors asserted in the April 17, 2008 issue.

“The West,” al-Qalam went on, “is promoting obscenity in Pakistan by promoting sports among girls’ educational institutions. It is a matter of shame for us that our daughters are playing cricket, hockey, football, and so on. The conspiracy is to change madrasas into regular schools and colleges. These conspiracies have been hatched by the enemies of Islam.”

Many seminaries claiming to adhere to the Deoband school of theology prohibit their students from playing cricket, as well as a welter of other sports. Others only forbid girl students from engaging in sporting pursuits.
Pro-cricket Islamists

Most Islamists, though, have embraced cricket and the nationalist fervour which goes with it. Jamaat-e-Islami politician Qazi Husain Ahmed, for example, is an ardent supporter of the game or so his party’s press releases suggest.

In the wake of a Pakistani victory in a one-day match in New Delhi, for example, the Jamaat-e-Islami leader said “the nation is standing in pride on this grand victory [sic].”

However, Ahmed warned that President Pervez Musharraf could use the popular euphoria generated by the victory to “slip from the principled national stance on Kashmir.” He expressed “fear that the General might give in on the Kashmir issue to save New Delhi from the humiliation of defeat in cricket.”

During its years in power, Afghanistan’s Taliban regime also embraced cricket although subject to rules which forbade the crowd from cheering and competitors from sporting short-sleeved shirts (women were barred from either playing or watching the game). In May 2001, an Afghan team toured Pakistan; the Taliban later unsuccessfully applied for membership of the International Cricket Council.

Indeed, Pakistan’s jihadists are known to have several ardent cricket fans in their ranks. Hafiz Mohammad Younus, a Dera Ghazi Khan resident who was killed while he was staging an attack on the Islamabad airport in 2007, was reported to have been an enthusiast.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/03/05/stories/2009030560961000.htm
 

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Gunmen make a cool getaway

36 hours after Lahore outrage, Pakistan still struggling for a breakthrough

LAHORE: New footage aired by Pakistani television channels showed the Lahore gunmen calmly walking away from the scene of their ambush on the Sri Lankan cricket team, and once again highlighted the failure of police or other security agencies to hunt down any of the dozen armed men believed to have carried it out.

The footage, from a closed circuit television camera installed in one of the department stores at Liberty Chowk where the attack took place on Tuesday, showed at least eight armed men, in groups of three and two, making an unhurried getaway from a backstreet.

Three of them rode away on one motorcycle parked near some shops, and two of them on a second motorcycle.

A third group of three could be seen walking on the street without fear of being pursued or stopped. The footage also showed some of the men dumping their rucksacks on the street.

Two national television networks, Geo and Dawn, showed the footage on Wednesday night, and media commentators said it underlined the failure of the police to anticipate the attack or react swiftly to go after the men who carried it out.

The Lahore police did carry out raids overnight at hotels and houses in several areas around the scene of the strike, and have reportedly detained some 50 suspects for questioning. Most of them were said to be Pakhtuns from the North-West Frontier Province.

The police also claim to have recovered bloodstained clothes from a men’s hostel in the Gulberg area, close to the ambush site, and said it could be an indication that one of the attackers was injured.

In Karachi, the railway police arrested a man disguised in a burqa getting off a train from Lahore, but it was not clear if the arrest was connected to the attacks.

But more than 36 hours after the incident, it was clear Pakistan was still struggling for a breakthrough, even though in the capital Islamabad, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told journalists that the government had shared “important leads” in the case with the visiting Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohita Bogollogama.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/03/05/stories/2009030550280100.htm
 

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Lankan team returns home

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said living in the trouble-torn island nation helped save his team as it came under fire from the attackers in Lahore.

Jayawardene said his players’ immediate reaction in taking cover when gunmen attacked their team convoy on Tuesday could be attributed to the situation in his country.

He was speaking to the press after members of the Sri Lankan cricket team, who narrowly escaped death in the Lahore terror attack on their bus on Tuesday morning, returned home in the wee hours of Wednesday by a special flight to a sober and emotional re-union with their family members, friends and fans.
Taken to hospital

Six of the injured players were sent to a local hospital for further check-up and treatment.

Sri Lanka Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge, who was present at the Katunayake International Airport to receive the team, told the media that the Government had sent a special medical team to bring back the players. Thilan Samaraweera and new opener Tharanga Paranawitharana were the first to be brought out and rushed to a nearby private hospital.
Special flight

The players hugged their relatives and friends as the 25-member tour party disembarked from a chartered Sri Lankan Airlines plane. Batsman and centurion Tillakaratne Dilshan broke down on seeing his three-year-old son.

New fast bowler Suranga Lakmal’s parents hugged their son saying they had “not had any meal since we heard the news” that their only son was among the six Sri Lankan players injured.
Natural instinct

“We have been brought up in a background of terrorist activities. We are used to hearing, seeing these things. Firing, bombings. So we ducked under our seats when the firing began. It was like natural instinct,” Jayawardene said.

Chaminda Vaas and vice-captain Kumar Sangakkara, who was also wounded in Tuesday’s terror attack, told reporters that the players were relieved to be back home. “We cannot think of anything else. It will take some time,” they said.

Veteran off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan said he saw his life flash before his eyes when the bus came under attack. “All the while bullets were being sprayed at our bus, people around me were shouting,” he said. “I am glad to be back.”

Commentaries and editorials in the local media reflected a sense of shock and outrage. At the same time the ire was not directed at the Sri Lanka Government for sending the team to play in Pakistan when other teams had refused to go there on grounds of security or Pakistan Government for the security lapses.
Media reaction

The English paper Daily Mirror in its editorial noted: “The burgeoning ties between the two countries have not been to the liking of many. A major attack in Pakistan with injuries to Sri Lanka’s pride — its cricket team — would have been the best way, in the eyes of those parties, to strain the ties between the two countries.”

The State-run Daily News in its editorial said: “We say to them all Sri Lanka is proud of you for making this bold foray into terrain that others feared to tread, knowing the risks that are at stake, merely to repay a longstanding debt of goodwill by Pakistan and also as an act of solidarity towards a beleaguered nation.”

It said that the gesture also goes to demonstrate Sri Lanka’s ingrained cultural ethos of repaying gratitude and most notably the willingness to help a friend in distress.

Another daily, The Island in a front page editorial said: “With the benefit of hindsight, we can say we should have known better than to send our cricketers to Pakistan. But, we must not forget that in 1996, when the other cricketing nations refused to play here claiming that Sri Lanka was not safe, Pakistan and India sank their differences and in a rare moment of unity rose in Sri Lanka’s defence by sending their precious cricketers here for a friendly encounter.”

http://www.hindu.com/2009/03/05/stories/2009030557080100.htm
 

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India believes Lashkar is behind Lahore attack

Additional Mumbai material to be given to Pakistan soon

Lashkar wanted to punish Pakistani authorities for the action they took for 26/11 attacks

Lahore attack has confirmed India’s worst fears about the state of affairs in Pakistan

New Delhi: India believes the Lashkar-e-Taiba is behind Tuesday’s commando-style attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, the motive being to punish the Pakistani authorities for the action they have taken so far against the banned outfit for its involvement in the November 26-29 terrorist incidents in Mumbai.

Highly placed sources told The Hindu on Wednesday that the LeT was reacting to the recent arrest of its leadership in the same manner that the Jaish-e-Mohammed turned against the Pakistani establishment following the crackdown on its activities after the December 2001 terrorist attack on India’s Parliament. “Then, the Jaish tried to assassinate Musharraf,” a senior official said. “This time, the Lashkar have staged their first-ever internal attack and consciously repeated the Mumbai pattern in Lahore to show what they can do and demonstrate their capacity to inflict damage within Pakistan.”
“Lost control”

Describing the LeT as a “state within a state,” the official said the group does not see itself as a creature of the Pakistani state. “And the fact is that they are no longer creatures.” Since 9/11, the official Pakistani strategy has been to go after the jihadi groups bit by bit, accommodating and protecting some, attacking others. “But today, I think they have really lost control internally.”

The sources said it would be comforting to believe someone within the Inter-Services Intelligence agency was directing all jihadi terrorist activities within and without Pakistan but this was not the case.

“There is an anarchic situation and things are out of control. And personally, I don’t think they have the answer. I don’t think there is someone in the ISI fiendishly controlling things,” the official said.
Relevant questions

Confirming that India has readied its response to the questions Pakistan had on the Mumbai dossier, the officials said the additional material Pakistani investigators wanted could be handed over by the end of this week. “Most of the questions they have asked are relevant from the investigative standpoint, and we will provide answers,” the official said, adding that India was not interested in using procedural tools like Letters Rogatory or the fact that physical evidence was now in the possession of the courts to stonewall the Pakistanis.

Asked for their assessment of how the Lahore incident could impact Pakistan’s willingness to cooperate with India on the Mumbai probe, the sources said there was unlikely to be more clarity. “Because their establishment is so fragmented internally, Lahore will have a different impact on different sections,” said the official. Each section was likely to use Lahore to confirm its existing belief.

“Those who say the LeT and others pose a threat to Pakistan too and need to be destroyed will say they have been vindicated. But those who say Pakistan will only end up inviting more trouble upon itself by acting could also say ‘we told you so’,” he added. “So you could argue it both ways.”

The Lahore attack had confirmed India’s worst fears about the state of affairs in Pakistan, the sources said. “We are in for 10 to 15 years of flexible containment. You actually need to work each of these sections separately, engaging, for example, civil society and the business community, while hardening ourselves to deal with the kind of threats emanating from the anarchic situation there.”

The sources said it was wrong to assume that whatever cooperation Pakistan had shown so far was because of American pressure. “There are parts of their hierarchy which see [what happened in Mumbai] as an actual threat even to Pakistan,” the official said, adding, however, that the more fragmented the establishment becomes, “the narrower is the interest each section seeks to defend.” Thus, President Asif Ali Zardari, who is locked in combat with Nawaz Sharif, might end up trying to reach out to the Army. And that is probably why Admiral Noman Bashir, whose immediate concern was to shift the blame for Mumbai away from the Pakistani Navy, tried to say the terrorists never used the sea route, the officials said.

Asked what additional evidence from Mumbai India was likely to hand over to Pakistan, the officials said the material being prepared included some transcripts and actual recordings of telephone conversations between the terrorists and their handlers, as well as the DNA material and more detailed GPS data requested for. But the Indian side would also be seeking additional information from Pakistan. “We are not engaging in a point-scoring exercise but are going through the Mumbai charge sheet to formulate some specific requests,” the official said. However, India was not formally asking for access at this stage to detained LeT leaders like Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi. “We do want to interrogate all of them, but we want to do this legally. That stage will come later,” he added.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/03/05/stories/2009030560981000.htm
 

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I fail to see how either video "implicates" the RAW in anything. The one is merely a document indicating- as early as January 22nd- that the RAW "intended to target the SriLankan team" because it "wanted to paint Pakistan as a security-risk state"; and the other is merely a recitation of the text of that document along with some antecedent information. If that were not vague in itself, the supposed 'document', unlike the Mumbai dossier, reveals NOTHING about the particular incident itself- in way of its particular manifestation and aftermath. Now the pertinent question to ask is: if the IGP of Punjab, the Interior Secretary of the Government of Pakistan, the Chief Secretary of the same, Secretary to the State Chief Minister of Punjab, and the State Home Secretary were ALL aware of the likelihood of the "RAW attacking SriLankan cricketers" - even more dubiously that "the attacks would take place while the team were in transit between the venue and the hotel, or at the hotel itself"- as EARLY AS THE 22nd OF JANUARY- why weren't the necessary security measures put into place to ensure the team's safety...particularly at a time when the Taliban are making inroads into Pakistani cities. The "source-report" clearly indicates the need for "extreme caution and heightened security arrangements". Why then was there such a massive security lapse, so much so that the credit for saving the team's lives goes solely to their bus driver - and neither to the cops (6 of which were shot dead) or anyone else.


Ansar Abbasi reveals in the latter half of the second video that the blame for this colossal security failure falls "constitutionally and otherwise also" squarely on the State G'vernor. Abbasi's fleeting reference to the transfer of senior police officers and the CCPO, as well as to the swap of no less than 6 IG's since governor rule was imposed, throws light on not just the confusion within the pakistani bureaucracy, but more troublingly seems to hint at some sort of covert accomplice to the perpetrators of these attacks as well. Either this attack was unbelievably good timing or the security apparatus was purposefully made weak so as to enable these attacks despite cursory information of its likelihood. In which case, speaks woefully to the baleful agenda of the p'stani leadership and indicates that the same, initially suspected of having tainted only the senior leadership, has now seeped down to the middle and lower rungs as well, and bodes extremely ill of the woeful state of the pakistani polity. Conversely, the whole judicial and political precursor to this attack, alongwith the bureaucratic reshuffling and revealing of 'documents' in its aftermath, could be part of an even more sinister plan to let such an attack sponsored by the ISI come to fruition, so that the Pakistani media may later frame the RAW and India- as is now being made an attempt to do- to exact some sort of obverse diplomatic and political mileage and arrest its increasing isolation in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.


Again this is all speculation, because the document itself is nothing more than a preliminary source-report. As it stands however, the information is neither "cuncreeeet" nor damning, much less an "implication" of the RAW in anything. If anything, it is testament to the serious security lapses and failures of the Pakistani establishment that- despite intimations, exhortations and warnings of imminence- failed to take the necessary measures to prevent such an attack from happening.


Now, watch this: actual footage of how the attackers so casually and calmly escaped from the scene and - far from tight security- the complete dearth and lack of ANY security officials around. Does this not raise some very serious questions about the motives, possible sources and backing of these elements?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAx7WshRFPc

(Video in Urdu)​
 

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Denial mode, yet again
—Ejaz Haider

Wednesday, March 04, 2009


Predictably, some analysts have immediately put the blame on India. While at this stage no possibility can be ruled out, the fact remains that the responsibility for providing security to the Sri Lankan team was ours and we failed on that count.

The only surprising factor in the Tuesday terror attack in Lahore is that the authorities did not anticipate it.

The security with the convoy was not geared towards responding to an ambush. In fact, the convoy was also vulnerable to other types of terrorist attacks — a possible IED (improvised explosive device) attack or even two suicide bombers strategically placed to ram explosives-laden vehicles into the convoy.

What does this tell us? The Lahore attack was a huge security failure at all levels — from poor intelligence to poor local protection for the convoy all along the route from the hotel to the stadium.

On the other hand, the attackers, according to what has been reported so far, were fully prepared. They struck on the morning of the third day of the Test, which means they had reconnoitred the route, surveilled the convoy, selected the point of attack, decided on the numbers they required and positioned themselves in a way that would allow them to fire at the convoy from multiple directions.

The point of attack, the Liberty roundabout, offered at least three advantages: the convoy would have to slowdown; the area is open and allows multiple positioning and open arcs of fire; and, the attackers could extricate in all directions after mounting the attack.

If the report that one of them first fired an RPG but missed is correct, then we should be thankful. The RPG hit would have left a different story behind it. But leaving aside what is known and is being constantly reported on TV channels, the question is simpler: Why this security lapse?

Pakistan has been trying its best, and for legitimate reasons, to convince cricket teams to come and play in Pakistan even as the terrorist threat in the country has steadily increased. Some teams have refused to play in Pakistan; Sri Lanka decided it would. Given how much we need teams to come and play here, given also the clear threat of terror attacks, the Sri Lankan team should have been provided the highest level of security at every point.

The team was most vulnerable while travelling between the hotel and the stadium. This means securing the route against all possibilities: suicide bombers, IEDs, snipers, ambush etc. Not only should all possible points of attack have been identified, those points should also have been secured. There should have been aerial patrolling, which was done after the attack had been mounted.

These are standard operating procedures in situations that call for high security. That situation, unless we want to deny it, now obtains in Pakistan. There is also the element of what kind of target the terrorist would want to take out. International concern and condemnation as also the objective of isolating Pakistan and showing the state to be weak-kneed are obvious objectives.

The Sri Lankan team thus made an ideal target and the authorities should have realised that. But they didn’t and nothing was done to secure the route on the ground or from the air ahead of the team’s movement.

We can now be sure that the International Cricket Council, which has called for a review of the status of the 2011 World Cup, would be averse to allowing Pakistan to host it. That’s another huge blow to us.

This is, of course, one aspect of this episode. But there is another which is even more troubling, namely whodunit.

Predictably, some analysts have immediately put the blame on India. While at this stage no possibility can be ruled out, the fact remains that the responsibility for providing security to the Sri Lankan team was ours and we failed on that count. Even very high security may not be enough at times to prevent a terrorist attack. But precisely for that reason security measures should be as sophisticated as possible and try to stay ahead of improvisations by the terrorist outfits.

President Zardari’s praise for the courage of the policemen who died in the attack is an appropriate gesture but does not take away the fact — in fact highlights it — that proper security measures would have helped avoid the attack and save lives as well as Pakistan’s already battered image.

Second, if India is indeed behind this, its intelligence agencies should be commended for getting recruits from within Pakistan to mount an attack on the Sri Lankan team. Given how late the Sri Lankan team decided to play the Test in Lahore and the logistics and other requirements for mounting such an operation, the Indians didn’t have much time to put this together — in which case, if these analysts are to be believed, India seems to have done an impressive job.

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? These are ideologically motivated millenarians, ahistorical in their approach and literalist in their outlook. They are trained, and societal attitudes transformed over three decades allow them to find recruits with alarming ease.


To point to India (‘khufia haath’ — hidden hand) without bothering to look at other evidence for which we now have a long trajectory, is not simply ignorance; it is deliberate perfidy.


While improving intelligence gathering for pre-emption and security procedures for tackling a threat are issues that need to be immediately addressed in terms of increasing capacity, the broader issue is linked to our societal attitudes. This is an area where the role of the media becomes crucial.

So far there has been no debate on this within the media, at least not in any structured manner. There are channels, anchors and a “select” group of analysts always at hand that, in conjunction, reinforce existing biases through obvious distortions, weaving a tapestry of conspiracies.
What should be done about them?

Here’s the question: Should they be allowed to spread this poison on the basis of “freedom of speech”? Would this not be akin to allowing someone with a gun to start shooting on the basis of “freedom of action”?

Carl Schmitt, the controversial German philosopher and jurist, writing during the twilight of the Weimer Republic, was arguing that parties and entities opposed to the principles enshrined in the Constitution should not be allowed to operate. The liberals were opposed to his viewpoint. But that misplaced liberalism resulted in a transformation that led Germany into a period from which the Germans are still trying to recover.

Would we like to go that way or should we begin to ask ourselves some hard and tough questions regarding what it is that we want as a nation? It doesn’t seem to me that we are even clear on the issue of whether we are a nation-state in the modern sense. That requires self-reflection, not pointing fingers at others and distorting facts.

The attack has done its damage. But if something positive can come out of it, there may be less sense of waste, after all.


Ejaz Haider is Op-Ed Editor of Daily Times and Consulting Editor of The Friday Times. He can be reached at [email protected]


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\03\04\story_4-3-2009_pg3_2
 

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Who carried out the Lahore attack?

Who could have done it?

Details of the attack in Lahore are still sketchy, but the video footage is a stark reminder of the November attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai, in which about 10 suspected militants held the city hostage for three days.

On Tuesday, a similar number of men staged an equally audacious attack. They ambushed the bus that was taking the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team to the stadium for a match with Pakistan.

Though the targets of the two attacks were vastly different, the attacks themselves were both spectacularly staged against high-value targets and made international headlines.

The style of these attacks is also reminiscent of an attack by a group of militants on the Indian parliament in the winter of 2001.

Even scores?

The Indian authorities blamed that attack - and the Mumbai assault - on a Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).


After some procrastination, the Pakistani authorities also endorsed the Indian claim in relation to the Mumbai attacks, saying at least nine men affiliated with LeT had sailed out from its southern port city, Karachi, to attack the Indian financial hub.

It has arrested several top LeT leaders in connection with that attack.

Could it be, then, that the LeT has turned back on Pakistan to even scores?

LeT is one of a number of militant groups that are believed to have been raised, trained and funded by the Pakistani security apparatus to fight Indian troops in the disputed region of Kashmir.

It is generally considered to be sympathetic to Pakistani security interests in the region - and analysts doubt that it would try to destabilise a Pakistani government unless it had been given a nod from within the security establishment.

That establishment has been blamed in the past for using militants, especially sectarian outfits, to destabilise civilian governments during the 1990s.

The attack in Lahore has happened at a time when a civilian government is in power after eight years of military rule.

'Rogue' elements

The government has made some diplomatic concessions to India which the military - which considers India as the enemy - may not like.

Cricketers Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavitana were injured
In addition, the air of reconciliation that was born at election time a year ago is giving way to political discord, with anti-government agitation brewing in the Punjab province, where the attack took place.

So, have the suspected "rogue" elements in the security establishment decided to rock the boat for a government that appears increasingly vulnerable to the threat posed by militants?

Some in international quarters have suggested that Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers separatist group could possibly be involved in the attack.

The Tigers have been conducting an insurgency in the northern parts of Sri Lanka since the mid-1980s and are currently losing ground to the Sri Lankan army.

In recent weeks, the Tigers have seen key towns fall to the military, prompting many to speculate that it is the beginning of the end of their insurgency.

But could the Sri Lankan rebel group make a desperate move like this one to stage a comeback?

Analysts say they are not known to have operated in Pakistan in the past, and do not have the kind of logistics and network in the region that they would require to stage an attack of this nature.

Besides, they are unlikely to blow up the entire Sri Lanka team - as the attackers tried to do by lobbing grenades under their bus - because it also includes ethnic Tamils.

Assassination

Another potential suspect are the Pakistani Taleban, or Islamist militants who are conducting a bloody insurgency in the north-west of the country.

They have been blamed, or claimed responsibility, for a number of equally spectacular attacks in Pakistan in the past.

Map

One of the groups was even accused by the government of having carried out the December 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

But they largely depend on suicide attacks or remote-controlled improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and their targets have been either state officials or members of rival sects.

Al-Qaeda, which many believe to be an umbrella organisation of most militant groups active in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kashmir, appears to have had a role in planning previous attacks against high-profile targets in Pakistan, such as foreign dignitaries.

Many security analysts suspect its role in a number of bombings against restaurants and foreign missions in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Analysts say al-Qaeda considers an Islamic Pakistan as essential to its pan-Islamist ambitions. It has been at odds with successive Pakistani governments because of their "pro-West" policies.

Meanwhile, many Pakistani ex-military security analysts claim that Tuesday's attack might be the handiwork of the Indian intelligence service, Research and Analysis Wing (Raw).

Some of them, such as former intelligence chief Lt Gen Hamid Gul, also blame Raw for the Mumbai attacks. There is no evidence to support such a claim.

Gen Gul and others point out that both these attacks have put Pakistan in a bad light and eroded its ability to withstand international pressure in matters pertaining to its national interests.

This, they believe, is part of a plot by India to undermine Pakistan.

Pakistan has ordered a high-level investigation into the Lahore attack, with President Asif Zardari pledging that the perpetrators should be revealed.

If this happens, it would be unprecedented.

Militant attacks in all parts of the world have been investigated and solved, but Pakistan is yet to solve even one out of the hundreds of attacks it has suffered since the 1980s.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7921291.stm
 

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Inadequate security led to attack?

* VVIP Security SP says ‘Blue Book security’ only for individuals, not groups
* Security SP says no flaw in security plan


By Abdul Manan

LAHORE: The Sri Lankan cricket team was not provided security according to the Blue Book. This encouraged the shooters to attack the team and security officials, sources and officials told Daily Times on Tuesday.

Blue Book security is provided to the head of the state, prime minister, chief justice of Pakistan, chief executive of the provinces, and any other individual, like foreigners, if the state desires. Such security is usually given to individuals rather than groups.

In Blue Book security, every precautionary measure is adopted regarding the routes, timings and other specifications for foolproof security. A gunman is stationed at every 50 meters maximum and within visible distance of each other. All entry and exit points are to be sealed by security personnel and barricades.

Blue Book: VVIP Security Superintendent of Police (SP) Cap (r) Ghulam Azfar Mahesar told Daily Times that he had just joined the office and was not sure about providing VVIP security to the Sri Lankan cricket team. He also said the Blue Book security was provided to individuals and not groups, and cricket teams did not fall in the category.

Police sources said the government had not announced the Blue Book or VVIP security for the visiting team, and added that even the security provided had loopholes in it, which helped the terrorists carry out the attack.

Flawless security: Security SP Muhammad Ahsan Younas said six Elite Force vehicles and an assistant superintendent of police (ASP) were guarding the team. He said nothing was wrong with the security plan.

Revealing the security plan, ASP Sarfraz Virk – head of the motorcade – said a warden known as pilot plied his motorbike in front of the ASP’s vehicle, which was followed by the cricket team’s bus and two pilot vehicles of the Elite Force. He said four Punjab Police personnel on two motorbikes were protecting the bus from both sides, while another two squad vehicles of the Elite Force were following the bus. Moreover, two vehicles of the Punjab Police also followed the bus along with a Rescue 1122 ambulance, he said. There were 24 Elite personnel along with 15 police officials, including the ASP, accompanying the Sri Lankan team.

He said that at 8:40am, when two pilot vehicles of the Elite Force and his vehicle turned from the Liberty Roundabout to Gaddafi Stadium, the shooter attacked the rest of the motorcade. He said seven security personnel had protected the guests by sacrificing their lives.


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\03\04\story_4-3-2009_pg13_1
 

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