Masked gunmen launched a brazen attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Tuesday, killing at least eight people and wounding seven team members, police said.
Up to 12 gunmen attacked the team’s convoy near the Gaddafi Stadium with rockets, hand grenades and automatic weapons, triggering a 25-minute gun battle with security forces, said Lahore police chief Habib-ur Rehman.
”They appeared to be well-trained terrorists,” said Rehman. The gunmen fled after the ambush, triggering a giant manhunt.
It was the first deadly attack targeting a sports team in nuclear-armed Pakistan, where more than 1 600 people have died in a wave of Islamist attacks in less than two years, and al-Qaeda and Taliban shelter in its north-west.
Witnesses said the upmarket district around Liberty Square, home to many designer boutiques, was turned into a battlefield as gunmen hidden behind trees opened fire in a sophisticated, coordinated attack.
”There was a blast first, then we heard firing. A rocket launcher was also fired at the bus, which narrowly missed,” a Sri Lankan player told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity.
Australian freelance cameraman Tony Bennett said people inside the stadium heard explosions followed by bursts of machine gun fire.
”Next thing we knew, the Sri Lankan team bus rolls up being sprayed by bullets. Players were getting carried into the dressing room.”
Sri Lanka said it would rush its foreign minister to Pakistan after the shooting, which Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse condemned as a ”cowardly terrorist attack” against the country’s ”ambassadors of goodwill”.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani strongly condemned the ”terrorist” attack and ordered an immediate inquiry.
Two air force helicopters evacuated the Sri Lankan team from the stadium to an air base, from where they would be flown home immediately.
Security experts defused two car bombs and recovered a stash of weapons including grenades, 3kg of explosives, a pistol and a detonating cable after the deadly ambush.
A police official said two civilians and six policemen who were guarding the players were killed in the attack, which happened as the team was heading for the third day’s play in the second Test against Pakistan.
Blood-stained seats
Television footage showed several gunmen creeping through trees, crouching to aim their weapons and then running on to the next target.
Broken glass littered the road next to a gun cartridge and an empty rocket-propelled grenade launcher. A police motorbike had crashed sideways.
Blood stained the front seats of a vehicle used by Pakistan’s elite force, the van raked with gunfire with its wheels shot up and radio system disabled.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but fears of attacks by Islamic militants linked to al-Qaeda have caused many cricket teams to cancel tours to Pakistan in recent years.
The shooting also came as the Sri Lankan army pushed its final offensive against ethnic Tamil rebels in the north of the country in a civil war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
Pakistani officials said the attack bore all the hallmarks of the November 2008 assault on the Indian city of Mumbai, which was blamed on Pakistan-based Islamic militants.
India’s immediate reaction was to say Pakistan needed to dismantle its ”infrastructure of terrorism”.
Sri Lankan officials said seven team players and a coach were wounded. Star batsman Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavithana remained in hospital but were out of danger.
Skipper Mahela Jayawardene, vice-captain Kumar Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis, Thilina Thushara and Suranga Lokumal were treated for minor injuries.
The team’s assistant coach, Paul Farbrace, a British national, was also hurt.
Samaraweera is one of Sri Lanka’s leading players and earlier this week became only the seventh batsmen in Test cricket to notch a double hundred in consecutive matches.
The attack sent shockwaves through the world of cricket and raised doubts about the 2011 World Cup, which is due to take place in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
”We note with dismay and regret the events of this morning [Tuesday] in Lahore and we condemn this attack without reservation,” International Cricket Council chief executive Haroon Lorgat said.
The attack cast yet another cloud over cricket in Pakistan.
Australia earlier this month forced Pakistan to change the venue of a one-day series to the neutral venues of Dubai and Abu Dhabi when the two sides meet in April-May. This was done over security fears.
India also refused to send its team across the border amid heightened tensions in the wake of the Mumbai attacks and a spate of bombings in Pakistan over the past year.
Last month, security concerns raised by other teams forced the ICC to move the 2009 Champions Trophy out of Pakistan. — AFP
