Probe begins; unexploded bombs found at the scene
Afp, Lahore
Pakistani officials said yesterday around two dozen people were detained over the ambush on Sri Lanka’s cricket team, which has raised new questions about the government’s war on militants.
The detainees were being questioned as police widened the hunt for clues in Tuesday’s brazen attack, which left six police and two civilians dead. Seven Sri Lankan cricketers and a coach were among 19 people wounded.
Up to 12 men armed with grenades, a rocket-launcher and automatic weapons opened fire in an assault which has stirred up doubts about Pakistan’s control over militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Pakistan had set up a special investigation committee which had “carried out very good work in very short time” but he refused to elaborate.
“Around two dozen people have been picked up — most of them belonging to banned or outlawed organisations — in the hope of finding a clue to the identity of the escaped terrorists,” one police official told AFP.
The official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to release the information to the media, indicated the gunmen were not among those detained.
Officials have offered a reward of 125,000 dollars for information about the men behind the well-planned attack. A large weapons cache, anti-personnel mines and two unexploded car bombs were found at the scene.
A second security official confirmed around two dozen people had been detained in multiple raids in Lahore, where the assault took place. All the attackers fled and there has been no claim of responsibility.
One man was arrested in the hope of providing information about an alleged attacker traced through a discarded mobile phone card, an official said.
“Some people have been detained and the investigations are progressing in the right direction,” Lahore city police chief Habib-ur Rehman said.
The attack is a serious blow for cricket in Pakistan, where millions follow the game passionately, and has deepened the isolation of a country now shunned by much of the world cricket community.
In Manchester, match referee Chris Broad, who survived the attack, slammed the Pakistani security forces for providing insufficient protection.
“I am angry at the Pakistani security forces,” said the ex-England batsman, adding he had expressed concerns for his safety before the tour.
“We were promised high-level security and in our hour of need that security vanished and they left us to be sitting ducks,” Broad said, in comments that drew an angry response from officials in Pakistan.
“It was precisely because of police valour and bravery that the Sri Lankan team and the international umpires survived,” police chief Rehman told AFP.
“How can he say that when six policemen died in the attack? I will talk to him tomorrow morning and then give my full reaction,” Ijaz Butt, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), told AFP.
Earlier, Butt admitted chances of international cricket returning to his country looked “grim” unless its security situation improved.
“If the situation does not improve then it is not possible to host matches in Pakistan,” he said.
New Zealand Cricket’s chief executive Justin Vaughan indicated it would call off its November tour of Pakistan, and the International Cricket Council raised doubts over whether the country could still co-host the 2011 World Cup.
India, whose team withdrew from a tour of Pakistan on security concerns after Pakistan-based militants were blamed for the Mumbai attacks in November that killed 165 people, said Islamabad was not doing enough to stop militants.
Sri Lanka’s cricket administrators were criticised for allowing the tour to go ahead by lawmakers and the media Wednesday, as the team’s wounded and shaken players flew home to Colombo on a specially chartered jet.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, visiting Pakistan, said he could not rule out the possibility that Tamil Tigers were behind the attack.
The shooting came as the Sri Lankan army pushed its final offensive against ethnic Tamil rebels in a civil war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
Star batsman Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavitana, both wounded by gunshots, were placed in an ambulance and taken to hospital. A specialist who saw them in Pakistan said they may need surgery.
Courtesy of www.thedailystar.net
