By Babar Dogar in Lahore

Senior Pakistan police officers have been heavily criticised in a report for being ill-prepared, poorly equipped and incompetent in their efforts to prevent a terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team bus last year.

Calling one officer a lazy coward, Shabbar Raza Rizvi of Lahore High Court identified more than a dozen senior policemen in a report on the attack that is due to be submitted to the International Cricket Council.

Rizvi wrote that police officials failed to perform their duties on 3 March when gunmen killed six policemen and a van driver in the team convoy, and injured several Sri Lanka players and team officials.

Senior Lahore police officer Haji Habibur Rehman was supposed to be the overall commander of the team’s security, but Rizvi said he failed to do his job. "I wish I had seen him marching on the road … or at least sitting in his office before 8am," Rizvi wrote. "Unfortunately, he only became visible after the occurrence took place."

The Pakistan Cricket Board is still waiting for permission from the government to submit the report to the ICC, despite reminders by the game’s governing body. A spokesman for the ICC confirmed it had not received the report and had no further comment.

The ICC carried out its own investigation following the attack. It recommended a series of security measures to be implemented by member countries, including requiring cricket boards to have security managers and establish security standards. www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket/police-failed-sri-lanka-team-during-terrorist-attack-2039898.html

2. Missing man in army’s custody, LHC informed

LAHORE, July 30: The Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justice on Friday disposed of a suo motu case about alleged kidnapping of a man after the Pakistan Army informed the court that the schoolteacher was in its custody for his involvement in anti-army activities.

Muhammad Naseem wrote to the chief justice, alleging that personnel of secret agencies had kidnapped his son Mubashar, who taught at Iqra Rozatul Itfal, Garden Town, in October 2009. The chief justice took a suo motu notice and sought reply from the quarters concerned.

A deputy attorney-general submitted the copy of a reply received from Lt. Col. Sarfraz Khan, a director at the army’s legal branch, which said that Mubashar was arrested under the Pakistan Army Act, 1952, for his involvement in anti-army acts. The reply further said that his case was being considered for trial by the Field General Court Martial.

Earlier, Cantonment SP submitted a report stating that Mubashar got his initial education from Manzoor-ul Salamia seminary in Multan and later shifted to Karachi where he completed a Mufti course from a seminary. He belonged to Ahle-Sunnat Waljamat and was a follower of Hakeem Muhammad Akhtar of Karachi.

Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif observed that no further action was required in this case as whereabouts of the kidnapped man had been revealed to his family.http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/local/lahore/missing-man-in-armys-custody%2C-lhc-informed-170

3. Two activists of banned outfit nabbed in Karachi    

KARACHI: Two activists of an outlawed religious outfit allegedly involved in supplying weapons to terrorists have been rounded up in Shershah area, Geo News reported Friday.

According to SP CID Mazhar Shawani, in raid conducted in Shershah area police arrested two activists Muhamamd Rizwan and Dawood belonging to defunct Jaish-e-Muhammad and recovered two TT pistols.

He said the accused were involved in supplying weapons to terrorists in Sukkur and that they had fled to Karachi following a raid on their hideout in Sukkur.www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=109450

4. UN removes five Taliban from blacklist

UNITED NATIONS: Five Taliban members, including a former Afghan ambassador to the UN, have been taken off a UN sanctions terrorism list, Austria’s UN mission said on Friday.

The move followed a review of the list of Taliban and al Qaeda members maintained by a UN Security Council committee. Two of the five were delisted because they were dead, a UN diplomat said.

Diplomats identified the five as former UN ambassador Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad Awrang, author of ‘My Life With The Taliban’, Abdul Salam Zaeef, Abdul Satar Paktin, and two members described as “deceased”, Abdul Samad Khaksar and Muhammad Islam Mohammadi.

Austria chairs the UN Security Council panel that maintains a blacklist of individuals and entities linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban.. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010731story_31-7-2010_pg1_5

5. Blast damages NATO oil tanker in Quetta

QUETTA: A NATO oil tanker was attacked in the Western Bypass area of Quetta on Friday morning.

Police officials said unidentified assailants attached an improvised explosive device (IED) to the tanker. The explosion caused thousands of litres of oil to spill from the tanker.

The tanker was parked near a hotel in Akhtarabad area in Shalkot police precincts in Quetta, when the blast occurred. www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010731story_31-7-2010_pg7_5

6. Police constable gunned down in Quetta

QUETTA: A police constable was shot dead near Barech Market at the Sirki Road in Quetta on Friday.

According to police officials, Head Constable Syed Zulfiqar Ali was going home when unidentified armed motorcyclists fired at him. www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010731story_31-7-2010_pg7_20

7. Sectarian violence tears at country’s heartland

LAHORE: Terror groups are stepping up sectarian attacks in Punjab, trying to further destabilise the country that is already battling al Qaeda and the Taliban, analysts say.

Over the past two months, terrorists, affiliated with both the Taliban and al Qaeda, have increased their attacks on adherents of opposing schools of Islam in Punjab, as their strongholds in the northwest have come under intensified military offensives. In May, attacks that killed more than 80 people, terrorists targeted two worship places of the Ahmedi sect, who consider themselves Muslims but have been declared non-Muslims officially.

A month later, terrorists attacked Data Darbar, killing 42 people. And in mid-July, a suicide bomber attacked a Shia mosque in Sargodha, injuring 15 people. Analysts say Punjab strikes share a common strategy. Radical groups are trying to provoke the country’s various sects to hit back in an attempt to inflame civil unrest, and ultimately destablise a government already under pressure from the US and other countries to crack down on terror groups. Punjab has traditionally been the power base of the country’s ruling establishment. The country is considered vital to US efforts to stabilise Afghanistan, so any instability in Punjab – and thus in Pakistan – is a cause for great concern for the US. Instability could also impact military operations against terrorists along the Pak-Afghan border.

“The sectarian terror groups are now becoming more active in Punjab,” said security and political analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi. “These groups now want to create social unrest by fanning sectarian violence in the country.” “It seems to be an attempt by the terrorists to divert attention from operations in the northwest by opening a new front for the government to tackle. They want to demoralise the people through such attacks and build up pressure on the government to stop operations on their strongholds in the northwest,” he added.

Sectarian violence is not new to the country, particularly in Punjab, which has been a hotbed of hostility between Sunni and Shia groups for decades. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010731story_31-7-2010_pg7_22