Terrorists Attack Foreign Athletic Team in Pakistan


Attacks Continue as Islamabad Makes it Crystal Clear that Terrorism Pays

Yesterday in the broad daylight of mid-morning, a dozen masked terrorists carried out an attack on a police-escorted convoy carrying Sri Lanka’s national cricket team to the stadium in Lahore, where they were to compete against Pakistan (Note: Click here for map of region showing Sri Lanka’s location).

Six players were wounded, and five members of their police escort, which included “several” vehicles filled with regular police as well as “commandos,” were killed, according to VOA. Other reports have four Sri Lankan athletes and a coach wounded.

The coordinated ambush began when the attackers fired into the three lead police vehicles, disabling the convoy and turning the rest of the vehicles and their occupants into sitting ducks. The initial salvo was followed by an unsuccessful rocket launcher attack on the bus, which was followed with a hand grenade that missed its target and by small arms fire.

A portion of the attack was filmed by a Pakistani television network from a relatively safe distance. A still from that footage is below.

The Sri Lankan team was touring Pakistan as a replacement for India, which canceled scheduled matches in the terror-ridden country after the Mumbai attacks last fall, which evidence has shown were planned in, and executed from, Pakistani soil.

Four arrests were made by Pakistan police in conjunction with the attacks, which followed a Sri Lankan request for tighter security around the team. Police also reported recovering a “huge cache of weapons” from the site of the arrests.

Further, “Pakistan authorities [also] defused two car bombs and recover a stash of weapons in Lahore,” according to reports.

Though no group has yet taken credit for the attack, it follows shortly after Islamabad’s peace treaty with Taliban in the massive northwestern Malakand Division demonstrated once again that terrorism in the Islamic state had the potential to pay huge dividends for the perpetrators.


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6 Comments Leave a comment

Correct me if I'm wrong

djemi (Diary) Tuesday, March 3rd at 9:44AM EST (link)

but didn’t FDR use WWII to get this country out of the Great Depression. All I can say is that I’m glad that it wasn’t the Indian team, no disrespct to Sri Lanka’s national cricket team, but given the way cricket is veiwed in that area of the world, you might having been hearing calls for war from the Indian poeple, just saying all it takes is say the shooting of a Grand Duke.
And don’t forget that if it’s Bad in America it’s worse in the rest of the World, we are at the top of the heap for a good reason.

“If I can’t shoot rabbits,then I can’t shoot fascist”
“With age, comes Wisdom, but only if you are paying Attention, son” my ‘Old Man’
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I wish I could name a good American analogy

Uma Richie (Diary) Tuesday, March 3rd at 10:13AM EST (link)

for cricket, but it is just too important to them to describe adequately.

The poor Sri Lankans have to deal with the LTTE at home, and now this.

 
 

Looking at that other shoe...

CJB68 Tuesday, March 3rd at 9:58AM EST (link)

   There’s a saying that goes “Waiting for the other shoe to drop.”  I’ve got a feeling that I’ve been watching that shoe for a long time.  Now that the United States has started to go back into “I don’t wanna fight no more” mode on the terrorists, I’m watching the situation in the Hindu Kush mountains and the headwaters of the Indus river in anticipation of a new phase in the conflicts beginning.  It’s quite clear that the Taliban isn’t satisfied with just a few mountains and a valley in northwestern Pakistan: they want the whole region.  The question now remains is “What will India do now that Obama’s America will be sitting there doing nothing?”

   From my reading of history, Afghanistan used to be the seat of an Islamic faction known as the Ghaznavids.  These Turkish warlords dominated the region at about the time of the Crusades, invading northern India and holding a reign of terror which lasted for a hundred years or so.  I can see the Taliban probably having those sorts of ambitions.

   I’m concerned about what this will mean in the long run if Pakistan finally falls and becomes a new base for Taliban and allied Islamo-facist organizations (Al Qaeda and its offspring/siblings).  I’d like to think that modern India has something of a nationalistic instinct which could enable it to pull itself together to face the threat of a nuclear-armed terrorist state on its borders, but there are still a lot of the old problems in place that might prevent this from being effective.  Historically, India has never successfully resisted invasion and occupation from foreigners before (Alexander quit because his army mutinied, the Mongols and Timurids left because they were unused to the weather and the rulers who supervised their invasions died and the Mughals were effectively assimilated into Indian culture in spite of their Muslim origins).

Delusional and Arrogant.  The Modern Democratic Philosophy.

Could I invite you to write a diary on the region

civil truth (Diary) Tuesday, March 3rd at 10:52AM EST (link)

You appear to have studied the interactions between Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India – and in particular the tribal and historical rivalries that predate the current national borders and that are fueling the current conflicts. I and I think others here would like to hear an analysis of trends and patterns, since all the news we get is segmented by nation, which obscures the issues going on.

The greatest evil…is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern. -C.S. Lewis

http://www.gmsplace.com/

 
 

that is so sad :( nt

mom2oneson (Diary) Tuesday, March 3rd at 10:15AM EST (link)

Good catch, Jeff...

fmaidment (Diary) Tuesday, March 3rd at 8:22PM EST (link)

Attention is late and sorely lacking US-based media. Even FoxNews is lacking on this one.

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