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The lapses that resulted in the ambush are quite obvious. The Lahore Police Commissioner, Khusro Parvez, admitted that huge security failures led to the attack on the Sri Lankan team in the city’s busy Gulberg area. Lahore’s biggest police station is just 200 yards away from the place of the attack and there is another one about a kilometre away. The assault lasted 20-30 minutes but no reinforcements came. Said the Commissioner, “The gunmen were meant to be combated by a back-up police support which did not arrive. All convoys are provided outer cordons but in this case the outer cordon did not respond or it was not enough”.
Khusro further stated the attack took place when the patrolling staff on night shift was leaving after their duty while the morning shift was yet to arrive. These policemen did not come as they were held up in the traffic. A hardly convincing but such is the effort to explain away the lapses.
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Colombo-based cricket columnist Trevor Chesterfield said the Sri Lankan team manager, Brendon Kruppu, had sought extra security to alley growing fears within the team but the Pakistani government had reassured them that there was no need for panic and everything was under control.
Australian cricket Captain has also commented of Pakistani assurances last year of providing top level Presidential-style security but the ground realities were pathetic.
Speaking to the BBC, Chris Broad, the British Umpire, who had been travelling with the Sri Lankan team, slammed the Pakistani authorities. He said police melted away as the attackers opened fire. “There was not a sign of policemen anywhere. They had gone, and made us sitting duck”. He said that the Pakistan had promised “Presidential style security but it was not there when we needed it”.
There is nothing to prove that it would be different this time.
The visiting American FBI team headed by its chief Robert Mueller met President Zardari on Wednesday and offered assistance in investigating into the Lahore attack. But the offer was rejected outright with a senior official asserting that local investigators were capable to unravel the mystery and nab the perpetrators.
Observers are unable to accept these claims with circumstantial evidence pointing to some disturbing, in fact intriguing information. One report said minutes before the Sri Lankan team was to leave the hotel, its security officer received a tip-off urging him to alter the route from the hotel to the stadium. The security team heeded the warning but how did the terrorists come to know of the ‘change;’ in the route and mount the brazen attack.
The Dawn reports that disclosed that though Pak Captain Younus Khan always left the hotel ahead of the Sri Lankan convoy, on the fateful day, he had delayed his departure. Why did Younus take more time to leave? Was he having a premonition or was he asked not to come in the way of firing line?
The Dawn also revealed that police seized three grenades, a timing device and a Kalashnikov from the backyard of a retired Army officer’s house, which is located close to the site of the attack. The gentleman has denied any knowledge of the recoveries but some persistent questioning might reveal whether the terrorists hid themselves in the house and came out in the morning to carry out the heinous attack.
Pakistani military and its Inter-Services Intelligence have long-standing links with Islamist and jihadi groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Taliban and Sipah-e-Saheba, whom they have groomed and used as proxies to wage a war in India and Afghanistan.
Reacting to the attack on the Sri Lankan team, the US Charge d’Affaires in Kabul, Christopher Dell, said Pakistan posed a bigger security challenge to America and the world than Afghanistan.
The Pakistan Army’s demoralisation and unwillingness to fight its citizens involved in terrorism is part of the problem as some of its own officers are deeply involved in raising, training and directing the terrorist’s outfits.