S&T Special Part 2: Lahore aftermath: who is to blame for ignoring the signals

by Trevor Chesterfield

It is far too simplistic to suggest that the planned terrorist ambush of the Sri Lanka team bus and match officials in their van, was an accident waiting to happen.

zardari bhutto

Warnings have been circulating Pakistan since the deliberate targeting and assassination of Benazir Bhutto on December 27 2007, by agents with strong links to al-Qaeda, of how strong fundamentalist Islamofascist sentiments are responsible for creating instability in the region.

Only eleven months later came Mumbai 26/11 and the horrendous massacre of more than 160 innocents. Within four months the bloody ambush of Sri Lanka’s cricketers in Lahore signalled 3/3. All this had followed the Marriot Hotel blast in Islamabad.

There have been numerous other incidents of militant bomb blasts in India and Pakistan, but all point to a wave of deliberate insurrection with Islamic revolutionary forces centre point of such mindless attacks.

It suggests that Sri Lanka’s tour of the troubled nation, and one that others had refused, is merely a sideshow.

In India’s case, it is the horrendous Mumbai massacre. For the International Cricket Council, the matter of security decided their decision to withdraw the hosting of the Champions Trophy last year despite the successful Asia Cup.

Australia, New Zealand and the West Indies have long voiced doubts over security arrangements and South Africa’s own evaluation after their successful 2007 tour, felt the ‘situation on the ground has become far less stable’ than it had been in the October – three months before the killing of Ms Bhutto. This had been the South African view despite the successful holding of the Asia Cup last year, won by Sri Lanka after beating India in the final.

Now Bangladesh, with serious internal trouble of their own, have asked Pakistan to delay their tour of the Bengali enclave. There is some uncertainty whether this is in the wake of the chaotic Lahore security breach last Tuesday.

Just how Sri Lanka were, in the first place, on a tour of Pakistan is highlighted by certain controversy. Suggestion is that the Pakistan Cricket Board, seeking a replacement for the India tour sought the help of Sri Lanka Cricket. At this point, it is alleged that Arjuna Ranatunga, the SLC Interim Committee chairman, agreed to the tour without consultation of other board members.

An initial proposal was for five limited overs internationals and three Tests. At the time, Mahela Jayawardene’s side was on a tour of Bangladesh and the plan had been to travel directly from Dhaka to Pakistan. The players objected to such hasty arrangements without their input. They wanted a reduction in the number of ODIs and Tests.

In the midst of this, Ranatunga was fired last December 23, as Interim Committee chairman and the committee dissolved by the Minister of Sport, Gamini Lokuge. Yet Lokuge had to consent to the Pakistan tour arrangements as television rights had already been signed. It is now suggested that because of the TV deal, the players were forced back to Pakistan for the Test series. If this is the case, some pertinent questions need to be asked who forced the players to undertake a tour that no other country would.

Match referee Chris Broad voiced similar concerns. On Tuesday, his worst fears were realised when, as he told a media conference on his return to Manchester how the security ‘left us to be sitting ducks’. In a graphic account of what took place after their driver was shot dead, suggesting that players and match officials were bereft of adequate security.

‘I raised my concerns (over the security) with the ICC before the tour started,’ Broad told the media conference. ‘They passed on those concerns to the Pakistan board. They assured me through e-mail that all security would be taken care of, presidential-style security. And clearly that didn't happen.’

It is easy to understand that anger expressed by Broad and the two umpires, Simon Taufel and his Australian colleague Steve Davis are highly critical as well of security arrangements, this despite Taufel’s remarks of how surprised he was at the lack of the logistics mounted on Tuesday morning.

There are conflicting reports as well of reasons for the delayed departure by five minutes of the Pakistan bus.

If Muttiah Muralitharan, Broad and Taufel are correctly understood it points to a certain conspiracy factor. Murali said that normally a couple of armed commandos rode in the bus with the team. On Tuesday there was no such protection.

Imagine the situation of the match officials, with the visuals clearly seen on television screens filming the frightening incidents of terrorists firing at random at the van carrying the four umpires and Broad. There was no return fire and it could be seen the van with the officials and their dead driver was left unattended. Where is the security? Were they part of the group already dead?

Such visuals are as frightening as those of last November and the storming of the Taj in Mumbai and the railway station.

In Sri Lanka, you live with a daily awareness of the importance of security arrangements and make your own precautions. A terrorist threat from the LTTE is matter of a suicide cadre walking the street or shopping mall, a parcel in a bus, someone on a motorbike or trishaw. As with the Islamic militants, brainwashed into their acts of terror, life means little to those they are out to kill or maim.

It is suggested that the plan had been to hijack the bus and take players hostage. The missile attack as well as the grenades not going off may have dissuaded them. Why did they shoot at the officials’ vehicle but not attempt to take them hostage?

In fact, what was the ugly pantomime supposed to represent as later TV visuals showed some of the terror group stalking side streets after the bus attack incident.

In Colombo, horrified wives, family and girlfriends looked on scared out of their wits. In Sydney and Melbourne family of Taufel and Davis were equally traumatised – more so when they realised what had happened. In England, Broad paid tribute to those who lost their lives before faulting the security arrangements of the day.

Just as life moves on, so will the game continued to be played and Pakistan will survive. But unless the militants are reeled in, what will emerged as Pakistan is another matter.

Note: Prior permission has sought from the author before republication of the above article.

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