LAHORE: Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s September 6, 2009 statement that Sri Lankan elements had been involved in the March 3, 2009 attack on the visiting Lankan cricket team in Lahore has further deepened the mystery as to who had actually masterminded the bloody incident.
Talking to newsmen in the federal capital on Sunday, PM Gilani in fact quoted Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, saying terrorist elements in his country might be involved in the 3/3 Lankan cricket team attack. The brutal assault on the world of sports since the attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 killed eight people, including six policemen and injured six Sri Lankan players. As the attack grabbed breaking news slot worldwide, the pundits were quick to point out similarity between the Lahore and Mumbai attacks ñ an armed group of people swooping on pre-determined targets with chilling ruthlessness. However, Lahore differed from Mumbai in one major respect ñ not a single assailant was killed or nabbed by the Pakistani authorities. In the absence of an Ajmal Kasab, there began breathless speculations about the identity of those who orchestrated the attack on the Lankan team.
From India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to militant groups (like the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi) to the Sri Lankan Tamil avengers to al-Qaeda-Taliban ñ their complicity in the 3/3 attack was discussed threadbare. Yet, by evening, RAW had already been blamed for masterminding the 3/3 to avenge the 26/11. A senior PPP leader and Sindh Assembly member Nabeel Gabool told Geo TV network almost immediately after the assault: “The Lahore incident was a replay of the 26/11 Mumbai attack and most likely carried out by Indian intelligence agents. Those investigating the bloody attack have already recovered some India-made weapons as well as food items from the crime scene.”
Interior Minister Rehman Malik, too, didn’t rule out a foreign hand and the Pakistani foreign office thought the assault was perpetrated by the enemies of Pakistan-Lankan friendship. No prizes for guessing who they were referring to. A day after the Lahore attack, the national press had flashed a warning letter by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the Punjab police, citing in a clandestine communiquÈ on January 22, 2009 an alleged Indian plan to target the Lankan cricket team. The CID report claimed that the RAW planned to carry out the attack on the route the Sri Lankan team was to take from their hotel to the ground. At the same time, however, there were those in Pakistan who were not willing to buy the official spin on the Indian involvement in the Lahore terrorist attack. Former information minister Sherry Rehman was the first one to have officially denied any government knowledge of an Indian involvement. On March 6, 2009, the Pakistani media reported that police and intelligence officials had categorically ruled out involvement of any Indian intelligence agency as well as the LTTE and were zeroing in on the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama was quoted as saying by the international media: “From our point of view, there is no Indian involvement. India has helped us in our counterterrorist efforts. I don’t see a need for India to target the Sri Lankan cricket team.”
Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer hinted at the involvement of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. He had told the media people after visiting the site of the attack: “It is the same pattern, the same terrorists who attacked Mumbai.” His statement was followed by stories in the national press stating that the attack could have been an attempt by the LeT militants to hijack the bus carrying the visiting cricket team to demand in return the release of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
On June 17, 2009, almost 15 weeks after the Liberty terrorist attacks, the Lahore police claimed having broken a Punjabi Taliban network, besides arresting a man seen on CCTV footages, shooting down a traffic warden. Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Pervez Rathore told a news conference that the suspect, identified as Mohammad Zubair alias Nek Mohammad, coming from Dera Ghazi Khan district, was arrested from Madina colony in Lahore and was among the seven terrorists who had attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team with an aim to kidnap them. He described Aqeel alias Dr Usman of Kahota as the mastermind of the attack who had finalised the plan at Tauhid hostel on Wahdat road, Lahore and a rented house in Madina colony near Cavalry ground, Lahore. Zubair told the police that he was working as a waiter at a small hotel in Rawalpindi when a man Saifullah convinced him for waging Jihad.
Almost a month later, on July 10, 2009, an investigation report submitted by the interior ministry to the National Assembly standing committee on sports and culture claimed that the main objective of the attack on the Sri Lankan team was to hijack the bus carrying the players and pressurise the government to release some arrested terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi including Akram Lahori and Malik Ishaq. Almost a week later, the national press reported on July 22, 2009 that Pakistan has handed over to India comprehensive evidence of the Indian involvement in a number of terrorist acts on its soil, including the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team. These reports said a dossier containing proofs of India’s involvement in subversive activities in Pakistan was handed over by Prime Minister Gilani to his Indian counterpart Dr Singh during their meeting at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.
And last but not the least, Prime Minister Gilani has spoken about the Lankan connection in the 3/3 attacks. The million dollar question remains: Who was the actual mastermind of the 3/3 attack?
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