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LAHORE,
(AFP) -
Masked gunmen launched a brazen attack on the Sri Lankan
cricket team in the Pakistani city of Lahore Tuesday,
killing at least eight people and wounding seven cricketers,
police said.
Gunmen attacked the team’s convoy near the Gaddafi
stadium with rockets, hand grenades and automatic weapons,
triggering a 25-minute gunbattle with security forces,
said Lahore police chief Habib-ur Rehman.
“The plan was apparently to kill the Sri Lankan
team but the police came in the way and forced the attackers
to run away. They appeared to be well-trained terrorists,”
he told reporters.
Rehman said up to 12 gunmen ambushed the team’s
convoy close to the Gaddafi stadium with rockets, hand
grenades and automatic weapons, unleashing a fierce
gunbattle with security forces. The gunmen fled after
the ambush, triggering a giant manhunt.
Witnesses said the upmarket district Lahore’s Liberty
Square, home to many designer boutiques, was turned
into a battlefield as gunmen hidden behind trees opened
fire.
“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 AFP 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.”
Security experts defused two car bombs and recovered
a stash of weapons including grenades, three kilograms
(6.6 pounds) of explosives, a pistol and a detonating
cable after the ambush.
A police official said that two civilians and six police
officers 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.
Television footage showed several gunmen creeping through
trees, crouching to aim their weapons and then running
onto the next target.
Broken glass littered the road next to a gun cartridge
and an empty rocket-propelled grenade launcher. A police
motorbike was shown crashed sideways near to the scene
of the attack.
Bullet holes ripped through the windscreen of another
vehicle and a white car was shown smashed headlong as
nervous security officers guarded the site.
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.
Sri Lankan officials said eight members of the touring
party -- seven players and a coach -- were wounded and
that the team was immediately ending its tour of Pakistan.
Assistant coach Paul Farbrace, a Briton, and star batsman
Thilan Samaraweera were kept in hospital although their
injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, said
Sri Lanka’s Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge.
Captain Mahela Jayawardene, vice captain Kumar Sangakkara,
Tharanga Paranavithana, Thilina Thushara and Ajantha
Mendis suffered only minor injuries, he said.
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 cast yet another cloud over cricket in Pakistan.
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