Pakistan identifies attackers of Sri Lankan cricket Team
Pakistan said Thursday authorities had identified the men who
ambushed the Sri Lankan cricket team and conceded security breaches in
failing to prevent the deadly attack.
Miandad calls on ICC to ban Broad
Pakistan great Javed Miandad urged cricket
bosses Friday to ban match official Chris Broad after he
criticised security provision following the Lahore attacks
on the Sri Lankan cricket team.
Match referee Broad said television
footage of the attack showed “not a sign of a policeman
anywhere,” leaving him and fellow officials “sitting ducks”
when armed men began shooting and throwing grenades at them
on Tuesday.
“We were promised high-level security and
in our hour of need that security vanished,” said Broad
following his return to England. But Miandad, who played 124
Tests for Pakistan, criticised the comments of the former
England batsman.
“How can Broad, an official of the ICC
(International Cricket Council), make such remarks in
public? I demand from the ICC that they ban Broad for life,”
said Miandad, who resigned recently as director general of
the Pakistan Cricket Board over differences with PCB
chairman Ijaz Butt.
KARACHI, Friday, AFP |
Dramatic footage of the gunmen making a leisurely getaway from the
scene of Tuesday’s deadly assault opened the floodgates to criticism
that security forces should have done more to prevent an assault that
killed eight people.
“We have identified the people who did the operation,” provincial
governor Salman Taseer told a news conference in Lahore, the capital of
Punjab.
Pakistan is steeped in political violence, and suspicion has fallen
mainly on Islamic militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Police
have brought in around two dozen people for questioning but no leads
have been announced.
SOME SUSPECTS
“We have a lot of information. We have arrested many people, rounded
up some suspects... but the final investigation will be presented to me
tomorrow; till then I am not in a position to say more,” said Taseer.
Up to 12 men attacked the convoy of officials, coaches and players,
firing automatic weapons, grenades and a rocket launcher as the vehicles
approached the cricket ground in the city of Lahore. The attackers fled
without a trace.
The new footage, captured by closed-circuit cameras, shows two
suspects wearing rucksacks and ambling down the road, apparently
untroubled after the carnage took place. They then jump on motorbikes
and speed off.
Police released sketches of four suspects. No one has claimed
responsibility for the assault, which killed eight Pakistanis and
wounded 19 people, including seven Sri Lankan players and an assistant
coach.
Pakistan lawmakers accused the government of a “serious security
lapse” and highlighted reports that the authorities were warned of a
possible attack.
The top government official for Lahore conceded Thursday there were
gaps in security provision for the Sri Lankan team.
“A terrorist has to succeed only once, whereas security has to be
successful all the time. After every incident one gets wiser. You get to
know all the gaps and how you should not repeat those gaps,” Khusro
Pervaiz told AFP. Chris Broad, the match referee for this week’s Test,
angered officials by saying Pakistan security forces had left the convoy
vehicles like “sitting ducks.”
“We were promised high level security and in our hour of need, that
security vanished,” he told reporters in Britain. Simon Taufel, an
Australian umpire caught in the attack, said their bus had been left
unprotected once the assault began.
“You tell me why supposedly 20 armed commandos were in our convoy and
when the team bus got going again, we were left on our own? I don’t have
any answers to these questions.”
Pakistan cricket chief Ijaz Butt accused Broad of lying about poor
security and said he would make an official complaint to the
International Cricket Council (ICC).
“It is a big lie that there were no policeman. We will lodge a
protest with the ICC,” said Butt.
LAHORE, Pakistan, Friday AFP |
