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.
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