Sports has always been an easy target for terrorists, but this hurts. It hurts a lot. What can one even say?
COMMENTS
Tiffin | March 03, 2009
One can only assume that they're not cricket fans. Bastards.
Nostalgic | March 03, 2009
Well, the "external hand" conspiracy theorists are out in full force already... when will they wake up? Isn't it so much harder for us expatriates? Where does one hide one's face after these humiliations?
omar ali | March 03, 2009
I am posting a few comments from my own blog because I think they are still relevant: The terrorists are still at large in Lahore. This is really bad news. 1. If Islamist terrorists are involved (and they are the prime suspects) then this does represent a new escalation. It means they are willing to attack any and all pakistani targets and symbols, which is really bad news...After all, the army trained tens of thousands of these people and if even a few fringe groups are now willing to go this far, then the mayhem to come will be terrible. Some people are already blaming RAW (that nut hamid gul has already blamed India for the attack), but my guess is that even if another power paid for the action, they probably used islamist terrorists to do the actual job. Its not that no one in Indian "intelligence" would want to do this (some surely would, as revenge for Mumbai and so on), but even if some crazy person wants to do this, who will he use to do the actual fighting? This was professionally done, and when you want really professional terrorists, you hire the best.....Other than the LTTE, that can only mean Islamist terrorists. And the LTTE has its hands full right now, but i guess they can still be regarded as the secondary suspects. 2. The security failure is glaring...especially the fact that after such a high profile attack, the attackers seem to have escaped (at least till now). 3. The only silver lining is that the elite force fought them off and stood their ground. This is not surprising to me...I do think the punjab police is still capable of standing up to terrorists, but just barely. If Zardari and company have their way, this wont be the case a few years down the road. At a certain level of corruption and opportunism, you can no longer count on the soldiers to stand and fight... In response to the claim that this is a false flag operation: 1.Very very few serious terrorist operations have turned out to be "false flag operations". If you look at the list of false flag operations on wikipedia, you will see that even advanced countries generally manage very simple things (like setting a bomb or burning down a building) and it doesnt take too long to figure out who was responsible. The fact is, the existence of a few false flag operations has given the terrorists and their sympathizers the ability to claim EVERY terrorist outrage as a false flag operation. This is just not credible. 2. Even when false flag operations really exist, the state has responsibilities and abilities that need to be discussed. Whoever did this, why would they get away? What makes muslims the target of every conspiracy, but unable to conspire back against anyone? If RAW did this (and I am not saying they had no hand in it, we just dont know yet) then the question of how 12 Indian commandos could live in lahore, rent guest houses, launch attacks, and then disappear, still has to be answered. 3. Conspiracy mongering exists in all populations, but has reached critical levels in the muslim world (for whatever reasons).The only conspiracy theory I regard as credible is this one: Mossad has set up a special cell to spread conspiracy theories in the muslim world. This conspiracy has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. The entire muslim world spends its time chasing imaginary targets and living further and further away from reality, thus making Israel's job that much easier. 4. It is NOT correct to immediately say "who benefits" and assume that whoever benefits must have done it. Who benefited from world war two? In the end, it was Russia and America. Who got destroyed completely? Germany. Yet there is absolutely no evidence that Russia or America wanted the war or started the war. Germany started the war and somebody else benefited. That kind of miscalculation happens all the time. in response to "why doesnt the ICC boycott India and Sri Lanka": You are being unfair here. Terrorists in Sri Lanka never attacked cricketers and were always extremely disciplined, so it was always clear that if their leaders say they wont attack cricketers, they wont do it. The reason some teams refused to go to Sri Lanka was due to the fear that players may be randomly caught in some bombing or attack and Pakistan agreed to go. But this situation is different: these terrrorists have absolutely no limits to what they will do and they do not seem to be in anyone's total control. Naturally, there is more fear connected with going to pakistan. India is a target of the same terrorists but India's security services (even though they are clearly rickety and less than competent) are unambiguously aligned against the terrorists and there is some element of "lets not give in to the terrorists"...having said that, I think some western teams may in the future refuse to go to India as well because these terrrorists can and will attack foreigners in India as well. Pakistan is especially in trouble because first of all the terrorists are based IN pakistan. Secondly, the pakistani security forces are even now not clearly aligned against the terrorists. Thirdly, since pakistan officially created these terrorists, there is less sympathy for the pakistani position internationally.
Yes man | March 03, 2009
"Terrorists in Sri Lanka never attacked cricketers and were always extremely disciplined, so it was always clear that if their leaders say they wont attack cricketers, they wont do it. The reason some teams refused to go to Sri Lanka was due to the fear that players may be randomly caught in some bombing or attack and Pakistan agreed to go. But this situation is different: these terrrorists have absolutely no limits to what they will do and they do not seem to be in anyone's total control. Naturally, there is more fear connected with going to pakistan." That is the key quote. The goal of these terrorists are not to fight the government but to civil pakistani society. This is a total war strategy. The question is, what is pakistan going to do about it? is zardari capable or will it take another military dictatorship to take on this challenge?
Nostalgic | March 03, 2009
Good points Omar Ali, in particular the last paragraph... the only thing I would like to add to your last paragraph is the denial our people, not just various state institutions, but people, exhibit... there will be protest demonstrations for Gaza and Kashmir, but none whatsoever against such acts... just the usual "they can't be Muslims/Pakistanis" platitudes and accusations hurled at entities across our borders... In such circumstances, like you said, it is no wonder the world isn't sympathetic to us...
Mansoor Ehsan | March 04, 2009
this is very unlucky and unfortunate for pakistan cricket. it means curtains for cricket here in pak for atleast 3 to 4 years now.
Yes man | March 04, 2009
"The owner of a hostel in an area of Lahore close to the attack said the police had detained about 13 students who were at his premises. Muhammad Ashger said the students were arrested around midnight. A rocket launcher and clothes with bloodstains were recovered from the hostel, the police said." http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/world/asia/05pstan.html?_r=1&hp Rocket launcher in the hostel?
Mansoor Ehsan | March 04, 2009
Chris broad match referee points out that probably some kind of conspiracy may be involved as in Pak team that traveled at same time with lankans during first two days were late on the day of attack? Did somebody in administration knew before hand of the incident?
Nostalgic | March 05, 2009
Muttiah Muralitharan alleges something similar... http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/pakvsl/content/story/393431.html Despite the heroics of the six or so cops who went down fighting, we must wonder if this is the "presidential-level" security we promised to visiting sides... Chris Broad accused security personnel of deserting them... the attackers kept firing for close to half an hour... something was clearly amiss...
omar ali | March 06, 2009
The following discussion was in reference to the less than heroic police response to the attack ....as details have come in, it has become clear that neither the elite force, nor any other police unit, did anything worthwhile during or after the attack. It was the bus driver who managed to get the team away.... So this brings up the question of what to expect in the future? I have spoken to some punjab police people and have some random thoughts of my own: 1. The baseline corruption and inefficiency of subcontinental police forces is a given, but while that is a serious problem, it is not a fatal one. That inefficient and corrupt force may not be able to act like some high tech SWAT team (and high tech SWAT teams rarely do as well as they are portrayed in movies anyway), but after the fact, they are not that bad at catching people when the high command and their political masters are totally clear that X or Y HAS to be caught. The high profile criminals who manage to stay uncaught are the ones who have corrupt contacts and protectors at high levels. Otherwise, the bureaucracy may be slow and inefficient, but its tentacles go everywhere and its crude methods are still more than a match for any free lance adventurers. 2. But this corrupt force is not going to put its lives on the line when someone else has ultimate responsibility and someone else (more powerful than them) may have another agenda. This is what musharrfocracy (and army rule in general) has wrought. It has completely mangled the lines of responsibility and made it easy for people (who are not too heroic to begin with) to say: the "real powers" probably want something else or may betray us to the very criminals we are being asked to catch, let them deal with the mess. I really dont want to die that soon". 3. What I hear from the police (and this may be self serving exagerration) is: "we know who is responsible. We can catch them. But who knows what the real game is? why should i catch them and have my picture on GEO so that they and their friends in the "agencies" can get me shot tomorrow"? 4. I have heard from leftists that the exploited lower class soldiers will just not fight for the upper class to live their parasitic life in Defence. Maybe some truth in that. But I think the left tends to exagerrate how much "class consciousness" operates in these things. The fact is, if the officers are relatively fair to their men and have some ability to command, they can get them to fight for them. But officers like that are going to become rarer and rarer with every round of horse trading. 5. Ideally, the army should have held a fair election, allowed a reasonable judiciary and let the power of legitimate democracy do some work. But that would have involved ceding some authority to the people and the corrupt and highly parasitic establishment was not willing to share ANYTHING or loose ANY privileges, even if it meant taking the country down with them (well, they hope to be in dubai before the last helicopter takes off from the embassy). For whatever short sighted reasons, the US embassy either did not want that either, or did not want to upset the army (which they may regard as the only force capable of doing the job). So the higher judiciary was destroyed to protect the privileges of the ruling establishment (and not just the NRO). The positive momentum generated by the elections was successfully dissipated by "leaders" like Zardari. and here we are, back at square one. Only a popular govt with SOME real legitimacy can get millions of people to do millions of everyday small things that will turn the place around. This is not a black or white issue. LOTS of grey can be tolerated, but there IS a limit. Rahman Malik and Zardari are not on the correct side of that limit. Some Pakistanis are saying new army rule will be able to set things right. But that implies that the army has the ability to run things and is willing to build up institutions that will eventually challenge its authority. What is the evidence for that?...What is different about Kiyani sahib? And we dont even know if the army high command has managed to rid itself of its jihadi faction? 6. It may well be that the point of no return has already been crossed. But I dont see how that can be casually accepted as the end of the matter. 170 million people are facing the prospect of violence worse than the first terrible partition and of living under the Islamic Khmer Rouge, I dont think they are all ready for it yet. Restoration of the popularly elected govt in Punjab would be a good first step, but only the first tiny step. Without a turnaround in legitimacy at the center, the downward spiral will continue....
Nostalgic | March 06, 2009
Two of the heroes: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/03/05/grant.pak.cop.family.cnn?iref=videosearch http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/03/05/grant.pak.hero.lahore.cnn?iref=videosearch If only those who fled the scene had shown the same spine, not to mention Taliban cheerleaders like that general and that cricket captain...