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| Posted: 03 Mar 2009 10:18 Last Edited By: chilee | ||
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At least five members of the Sri Lankan cricket team have been injured in a shooting incident in the Pakistani city of Lahore, a Sri Lankan minister says.
Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge told the BBC said that early reports said indicated that the injuries to five players and a coach were minor. The incident happened when unidentified gunmen fired on a convoy carrying Sri Lankan and Pakistani cricketers. The attackers were armed with RPG's, Granades, and AK-47's. Unconfirmed reports say 5 policemen had been killed by the shooting. Sri Lankan media reports said two of the players including Thilan Samaraweera, who scored a double century in the ongoing Test match, have been taken to hospital. The convoy was carrying Pakistani and Sri Lankan cricketers to the Gaddafi stadium, which is hosting a Test match between the two sides. The third day of play in the Second Test was scheduled to begin. "It appears that our team bus was targeted on the way to the match. It appears that four of our cricketers have been injured and taken to the hospital," a Sri Lankan cricket official told an Indian TV channel from Colombo. TV pictures showed two gunmen with backpacks on the road where the incident happened. An eyewitness told Reuters news agency that three policemen and a traffic warden had been killed in the incident. Shop owner Ahmed Ali said two policemen had been driving behind the team bus when the attack happened. "It was a very heavy firing and I heard at least two explosions at the time," an eyewitness told Reuters. Pakistani invited Sri Lanka to tour after India's cricket team pulled out of a scheduled cricket tour following the deadly November attacks in the western Indian city of Mumbai. Do you think this incident happened due to a bad decision in going ahead on a tour to Pakistan? to comment on this please sign in |
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| Posted: 03 Mar 2009 11:41 | ||
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The attackers, reportedly armed with Kalashnikovs and hand grenades, targeted the Sri Lankan team's bus on Tuesday near the city's main Gaddafi cricket stadium, where Pakistan has been playing Sri Lanka in a test match.
Haji Habibur Rehman, Lahore's chief of police, said there were about 12 attackers, who "appeared to be well-trained terrorists". "Five policemen who were providing protection to the team sacrificed their lives," he said. Rehman said one cricket player had suffered a leg injury and another was shot in the chest, but neither injury appeared life threatening. A Sri Lankan ministry official said Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavitana were the cricketers hospitalised. He said three other players were slightly injured and that Trevor Bayliss, the team's head coach and an Australian national, also sustained minor wounds. Sri Lankan cricket officials said the test match has been called off after the shooting, and that they are working to get the team out of the country as soon as possible. The Pakistani cricket team, which was also on its way to the stadium when the incident occured, was rushed away from the area. Security 'problems' It was unclear who was behind the assault on Tuesday, and no one has yet claimed responsibility. Pakistan has seen a wave of violence in recent years, and some foreign sports teams have refused to play in the country because of security concerns. Sri Lanka has also seen attacks in the country's north and in the capital Colombo as government forces claim to be on the verge of crusing Tamil Tiger rebels and ending a decades-old civil war. Hasan Askar-Rizvi, a Lahore-based defence analyst, called the shooting a "daredevil, well-planned, and well-executed attack which shows the strength of terrorist forces in Pakistan". "[It] shows the problems in the security system of Pakistan," he said. Askar-Rizvi said he suspected the attackers' target was not specifically the Sri Lankan cricket team, but rather, to make headlines and embarrass the Pakistani government. |
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