'Terrorists behind attack on SL cricket team identified'

Rezaul H Laskar

Lahore, Mar 5 (PTI) Pakistani investigators have
identified the terrorists behind the attack on the Sri lankan
cricket team, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer said Thursday but
did not name any of the suspects.

"We have identified the people who have carried out
the attack. We are after them," Taseer told reporters adding
the Army and the intelligence agency, ISI, are helping in
tracking down the gunmen.

Taseer said the investigators have found a large
amount of weapons. "It was like a small army".

About a dozen gunmen ambushed the bus ferrying the Sri
Lankan team to the Gaddafi stadium on Tuesday, leaving seven
players andan assistant coach injured and eight people dead.
The gunmen fled after the attack.

The Governor said he did not want to share details as
a high-level committee has been constituted to go into the
attacks and submit its report within three days.

Investigators questioned five suspects who are
believed to have helped the terrorists. The suspects claimed
that the attackers had stayed in the city for a month before
striking.

They are also trying to trace persons whose
telephone numbers were found on the SIM cards of the mobile
left behind by the terrorists.

One of the suspects, a resident of Rehmanpura, had a
photograph of one of the attackers, the Dawn newspaper said
quoting sources.

Babar Shahzad, who had reportedly purchased one of
the SIMs used by the attackers, and Dilawar Hussain, a
teenager, were picked up from a village at Rahim Yar Khan in
southern Punjab. The three other suspects were detained in
Lahore.

Faced with all round criticism for the lax security,
the Punjab Governor sought to put a brave front, saying "the
security for the Sri Lankan team was adequate" and that all
standard procedures had been followed.

Asked about match referee Chris Broad's comments that
they were left with no security when the terrorists started
firing and were "sitting ducks", Taseer said it is unfortunate
that he has made such comments.

The governor also attacked Indian Home Minister P
Chidambaram for describing Pakistani security as hopeless. "In
Mumbai, for six hours, nobody came and the terrorists left
many dead. Our security personnel kept fighting till the end."

Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf flayed the
security forces for not reacting fast and taking the
terrorists head-on.

"Our reaction should have been much better," Musharraf
said, adding it appeared that the security personnel assigned
to guard the cricket team lacked proper training.

"If this was the elite force, I would expect them to
have shot down those people who attacked (the cricket team),"
he told reporters in Islamabad.

His comments came hours after Lahore Commissioner
Khusro Pervaiz admitted that there were "certain security
lapses which are very vivid and very clear."

"The gunmen were meant to be combated by back-up
police support, which didn't arrive," he said.

There was also no official word on the total number of
suspects detained though media reports said over 50 people had
been taken into custody for interrogation.

CCTV footage aired by television channels Wednesday
showed about half a dozen attackers calmly leaving the site of
the assault on foot or on a motorcycle.

Aslam, an auto-rickshaw driver whose vehicle was used
by two of the attackers, told police that the men with fair
complexion were speaking in Punjabi. They dropped two bags
with clothes, detonators and walkie-talkies after getting out
of the auto-rickshaw in Lahore's cantonment area.

Toor Agha, the former owner of a white car used by the
attackers, was handed over by police to an intelligence
agency. The car was found at the Liberty roundabout with timed
explosive devices. Agha told investigators he had sold the car
some time ago.

The food items found in bags left behind by the
attackers indicated they might have planned to take the Sri
Lankan team hostage or engage in a prolonged stand-off with
security forces, police said.

"Raids are being conducted. There are some leads which
we are following and were are trying our best to unearth the
conspiracy," Lahore police chief Habibur Rehman said.

The video footage on Pakistani channels showing the
terrorists ambling down a bylane has surpprised the
investigators. "Obviously, they were well trained. If they had
run, they would have attracted attention," the Governor said.

The terrorists were armed with automatic weapons,
grenades and a rocket launcher.

Meanwhile, Pakistanis queued up to pay tributes to the
policemen who died in the attack at the Liberty Chowk here.
A special memorial was organised by the city traffic police.
PTI VMN
PMR