Sri Lanka on Monday rejected reports that neighboring India may have been involved in the militant attack against the island’s national cricket team in Pakistan. Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said Pakistan had promised an interim report on the March 3 Lahore assault, in which seven players and the assistant coach were injured and six Pakistani policemen and two civilians killed.
“From our point of view, there is no Indian involvement,” he said in response to media speculation that New Delhi had links to the ambush in an attempt to discredit its nuclear-armed neighbor Pakistan. “India has helped us in our counter-terrorist efforts. I don’t see a need for India to target the Sri Lankan cricket team.”
Media reports had speculated that India’s external intelligence agency may have had a hand in the Lahore attacks in a tit-for-tat retaliation for the November siege in Mumbai. The Mumbai assault that left 165 dead has been blamed by New Delhi on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The siege soured a five-year peace process between the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals.
Bogollagama said Pakistan was investigating the Lahore incident where unknown gunmen fired automatic weapons, grenades and a rocket launcher on the team bus, officials and coaches on their way to the second Test in Lahore.
The Australian and US governments have also offered their support in tracking down those responsible for the deadly ambush, said Bogollagama, who held talks with Pakistani leaders shortly after the incident.
Sri Lanka, which has been battling the separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) since 1972, remains deeply suspicious that the rebels may have had a hand in the attacks.
“We are not ruling out links with the LTTE. The LTTE are known to have links with international terrorist groups. Our initial suspicions are on the LTTE,” Bogollagama said.
Three Sri Lankan players and their British assistant coach Paul Farbrace remained hospitalized on Monday, while the other four were discharged last week after the squad was flown home following the shooting, a doctor said.
The government has hired a team of psychologists to help the squad, said Geethanjana Mendis, head of the Sri Lankan sports ministry medical unit.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
RSS