Re: Sri Lankan cricket team attacked in Lahore.
^ It wasn't first day of Test match, so militants could've observed the route/timing etc, I don't think its rocket science unless there are 100 ways of going from hotel to stadium and they changed timing and route everyday.
^ Agreed! He also questions about the lack of armed security guards in the bus.
Do you imply that attackers did not target SL team alone? And, They would have attacked both the teams if they had traveled together?
Or Do you believe Pak team escaped just by plain luck? It seems Murali does not think so!
^ Agreed! He also questions about the lack of armed security guards in the bus.
Do you imply that attackers did not target SL team alone? And, They would have attacked both the teams if they had traveled together?
Or Do you believe Pak team escaped just by plain luck? It seems Murali does not think so!
To blame that Pakistani team departed 5 minutes late purposely is an accusation that Pakistani team knew about the attack and avoided it, thats just ridiculous. In my opinion it was just plain luck.
However not having an armed guard in bus is something overall security planners must have decided as there were mobiles guarding the bus and is something to be looked into. Was it the first time they didn't have armed guards in the bus or were they never made available by Pakistani police (in Karachi as well as other days in Lahore)? Something to be looked into.
Now Murali questions about the security!
Murali questions security lapse Cricinfo staff March 4, 2009
Muttiah Muralitharan has questioned whether the terrorists who perpetrated Tuesday's attack on the Sri Lankans had received inside information as to the team's movements. In a chilling account of the Lahore shootout, Murali said the precise timing of the attack suggested the terrorists could have been tipped off about timing and security arrangements.
"Somehow in this incident there were no police with guns on the bus," Murali told Australian radio. "If someone was there with a gun we would have had a chance of defending ourselves. **Normally all the buses go and we have four or five escorts. We left at 8.30am and Younis Khan (and the Pakistanis) at 8.35am. We divided into two, maybe they knew the information for the right time. **They tried to shoot the driver. Then they were shooting both sides of the bus and they counted 39 holes." Murali's comments, if proven, would prove a crushing blow to Pakistan's hopes of hosting cricket in the near future. Law enforcement agencies in the country have long been accused of aiding Taliban militants, and any suggestion that the attack on the Sri Lankans was executed with the assistance of local security forces will heighten concerns that Pakistan is unfit to accommodate touring teams. Murali emerged physically unscathed from the attacks, but said he feared for the life of team-mates as the team bus was sprayed with bullets. "There were gun shots going on and the bullets were passing us," he said. "I saw [Tharanga] Paranavitana was bleeding in the chest. I thought he was gone, actually. Thilan Samaraweera was bleeding, Kumar Sangakkara was bleeding from the shoulder. There was blood everywhere. It was frightening." Murali would not confirm whether he would play for the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL. "I don't know, we have to speak to them, see how the security is, make sure everything is right ... not only IPL, England, anywhere. I never in my dreams thought we would be attacked."
I think Murali has been misquoted here. Secondly the terrorists were waiting for the team just yards away from the stadium and that is the main route to it so it was a no brainer that the buses would pass through there.
Here is something interesting …
JUST minutes before it was about to leave the Pearl Continental Lahore, the Sri Lankan cricket team’s security detail received a tip-off urging it to alter its route from the hotel to the stadium.
The call, believed to have come from Lahore police, warned of a credible threat to the team as it headed out by bus for the third day of its final Test match on its tour of Pakistan.
Attack fuels a nation’s unravelling | The Australian
Infact the Sri Lankan team had previously raised questions about their security and had asked for additional security !!! It raises a lot of stink …
Yeah the security services knew it was going to happen so they delayed the Pak team bus and got six of their own killed. 
On another point I just saw the pic of the driver who was killed and felt really sick as I had seen him on TV many times during the matches. He was a popular figure with the visiting teams and they would show him ocassionally during the match and he would wave back and was always smiling, they also interviewed him once. Really sad.
Re: Sri Lankan cricket team attacked in Lahore.
Apparently the Police Fled as soon as the convoy was attacked so there was hardly a gun battle. It appears the Police were running when they were shot at.
And this is the elite Police Force that is suppose to guard VIP’s.
Pakistan’s entire security establishment is a joke
Referee in deadly Pakistan ambush says police fled
By RIZWAN ALI, Associated Press Writer Rizwan Ali, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 8 mins ago
People are seen through a bullet hole as they visit the spot of Tuesday’s attack AP – People are seen through a bullet hole as they visit the spot of Tuesday’s attack in Lahore, Pakistan …
LAHORE, Pakistan – A referee accused Pakistani police of abandoning the convoy carrying Sri Lanka’s cricket team as a deadly militant ambush began, and video released Wednesday showed gunmen apparently escaping on an empty street as other attackers casually walked away.
The allegations by Chris Broad were denied by Pakistani cricket and government officials, who pointed out that six police officers died in the attack Tuesday by up to 14 assailants toting assault rifles, grenades and at least one rocket launcher.
Officers said their manhunt Wednesday for the attackers was making little headway.
On Wednesday, new video from a surveillance camera broadcast on local TV showed several attackers apparently escaping along a deserted side street on motorcycles while carrying weapons. Three were also shown walking down the middle of the street, apparently in no hurry, indicating they did not believe police were in the area or hunting them down.
“There was not a sign of a policeman anywhere,” Broad, the referee, said Wednesday after his arrival back in Britain. “They had clearly left the scene and left us to be sitting ducks.” He did not say how long his van was stationary. Other witnesses described police and the gunmen trading fire for around 15 minutes during the attack, but at least one of the players said the gunmen appeared to fire at will.
“They were not under pressure … nobody was firing at them,” said team captain Mahela Jayawardene said.
The attack in the eastern city of Lahore came at a time of mounting political turmoil in the nuclear-armed country and added to fears it was losing the battle against Islamist extremists blamed for a series of high-profile attacks.
There are also concerns over whether Pakistani police will be able to bring the perpetrators to justice — underscored by conflicting accounts of the investigation offered Wednesday. One police official said several suspects had been taken into custody, though none of the gunmen was tracked down. Hours later, however, another official denied anyone had been arrested.
Broad was traveling in a van in the same convoy as the Sri Lankan team bus, which stopped for around 1 1/2 minutes as gunfire rang out before speeding to the stadium.
His driver was killed and a fellow official was shot and critically injured.
Broad said Pakistani officials had promised “presidential-style security” but “it was not there when we needed it.”
“How can Chris Broad say this when six policemen were killed?” Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ijaz Butt told The Associated Press. He declined further comment until he had a chance to speak to Broad.
The convoy transporting the Sri Lankan team and cricket officials was surrounded by police vehicles at the front, rear and side, and traveled the same route each day of the five-day test match against Pakistan’s national team, according to officials.
Lahore police Chief Haji Habibur Rehman said police raided locations in Lahore and surrounding districts and arrested “some suspects.” He gave no details of their alleged roles, or the precise number detained, but said some were picked up at a Lahore hostel, where bloodstained clothes were also found.
He added: “So far we have not made any headway toward the perpetrators.”
Later, Salah ud Din Niazi, the officer in charge of the probe, told The Associated Press no arrests had been made and no one had been questioned.
None of the gunmen was killed, and all apparently escaped into this teeming city after a gunbattle with the convoy’s security detail.
Pakistani police have a poor record of investigating terrorist attacks and often round up people in the immediate aftermath of assaults who are never charged, or release contradictory information.
Islamist militants are widely suspected in the attack, but authorities have not explicitly stated this.
Veteran Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan said the bus was chaos during the attack.
“All the while bullets were being sprayed at our bus, people around me were shouting,” he said.
But Jayawardene added that growing up in Sri Lanka, which has seen scores of terrorist attacks in the country’s civil war, meant the players had a “natural instinct” that made them immediately hit the floor at the first sound of gunfire.
“We are used to hearing, seeing these things. Firing, bombings. So we ducked under our seats when the firing began,” he told reporters.
The attack ended Pakistan’s hopes of hosting international cricket teams — or any high-profile sports events — for months, if not years. Even before Tuesday, most squads chose not to tour the cricket-obsessed country for security reasons.
Pakistan has a web of militant networks, some with links to al-Qaida and the Taliban, which have staged other strikes in a bid to destabilize the government and punish it for its support of the U.S.-led invasion of neighboring Afghanistan.
The assault bore many similarities to last November’s three-day hostage drama in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai, and one group likely to fall under suspicion is Lashkar-e-Taiba, the network blamed for the attacks, when 10 gunmen targeted luxury hotels, a Jewish center and other sites, killing 164 people.
The group has been targeted by Pakistani authorities since then, and its stronghold is in eastern Pakistan.
In addition to the six police officers, a driver of a vehicle in the convoy was also killed. Seven Sri Lankan players, a Pakistani umpire and a coach from Britain were wounded, none with life-threatening injuries.
Re: Sri Lankan cricket team attacked in Lahore.
“There was not a sign of a policeman anywhere,” Broad, the referee, said Wednesday after his arrival back in Britain. “They had clearly left the scene and left us to be sitting ducks.”
Broad went on to say that some of the security forces fled when the shooting started. “At some stage … someone opened the door of the van and an elite policeman threw himself inside and lay on top of me. That wasn’t particularly brave. When the shooting stopped, I shouted at him to drive us away but he said: ‘I don’t drive.’”
Cricinfo - Security ‘left us to be sitting ducks’ claims Broad
So much for the bravery of the security people. No wonder all the perpetrators escaped alive.
Escape is a stong word to use … these terrorists rather “ambled” out of liberty chowk … if you see the footage from Geo, they had no concerns that the security forces might catch up with them … come on Inzy used to run faster then this !!!
broad conveniently forgot to mention that it was a commando who jumped in the driver seat and drove the van away. Some people like to exaggerate.
[quote=“mercenary2k”]
Apparently the Police Fled as soon as the convoy was attacked so there was hardly a gun battle. It appears the Police were running when they were shot at.
And this is the elite Police Force that is suppose to guard VIP’s.
Pakistan’s entire security establishment is a joke
[
So how were the six policeman killed and why werent the terrorist able to gain access to the SL bus if everyone had fled. Who were the terrorist shooting at for ten odd minutes, maybe the birds which were flying aroudn as all the security guys had fled. It is easy to sit on a keyboard and call everyone a joker.](“http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090304/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan_cricketers_attacked”)
The SL Bus driver (Mohammad Khalil) drove through the ambush and right into the stadium a few hundred meters away. A rocket fired missed the bus as they turned towards the stadium gates.
Checkout this account by Sri Lankan batsman Kumar Sangakkara who was on the bus…
We were naive to feel safe in Pakistan, says Sangakkara
Re: Sri Lankan cricket team attacked in Lahore.
the stadium isnt that far from where the attack happened utd. the police prevented the attackers from following the bus.
Yes that is true but if the security guys had not been returning the fire and engaging them what was stopping them to follow the bus into the stadium which was only a few yards away to kill the team members or take them hostages. It is not that simple.
More bull crap, since when has India started manufacturing AKs and RPGs?
India makes an AK-47 clone called the AK-7 since 2004, and Russia sells the RPG-29 to India.
Re: Sri Lankan cricket team attacked in Lahore.
The poor show by the police in failing to injure or kill a single attacker makes me almost miss the days of General Zia and the army machine gun bunkers he had covering many public places and roundabouts in the 80s. Well they were there in Karachi so I assume that a place like liberty square in Lahore would have had one too.
Re: Sri Lankan cricket team attacked in Lahore.
nope, there isn't one
there are CCTVs watching such chullu galees in pakistan? give me a break. this is most likely some drama tape to fool people.
and from eye-witness accounts, one police van stayed while two fled the scene. the driver on the third one was hit.
at 9 am why is there no body on these streets?
I salute the police officers who fought to death defending their countrymen as well as the guests. They gave their lives for the security of other people. May Allah bless their souls. Ameen.
Re: Sri Lankan cricket team attacked in Lahore.