Gunmen attacked Sri Lanka’s cricket team in a gun and grenade assault in Lahore yesterday morning that killed eight people and wounded seven members of the squad.
It was the first major attack on an international sporting team since Palestinian militants attacked Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Sri Lanka immediately canceled the rest of the tour.
The unidentified gunmen fired AK 47s and rockets and hurled grenades at Sri Lanka’s team bus as it was being driven to Lahore’s Gaddafi stadium for the third day of a match against Pakistan.
PHOTOS: LEFT, AP; RIGHT, EPA
The attack was launched as the team bus slowed for a traffic circle about 100m from the stadium, Lahore Police chief Habib-ur-Rehman said, triggering a 15-minute gunbattle with police guarding the vehicles. Most of the dead were policemen.
“The plan was apparently to kill the Sri Lankan team but the police came in the way and forced the attackers to run away,” Rehman said.
Witnesses saw gunmen with rifles and backpacks running through the streets and firing on people and vehicles around the stadium.
“I saw them from the window of my office firing at the police escort first. When the police dispersed after the shooting, they started firing at the bus of the Sri Lankan team,” Mohammad Luqman said.
Team captain Mahela Jayawardene said the gunmen first shot at the tires, then at the bus itself.
“We all dived to the floor to take cover,” he said by telephone from the stadium, before being evacuated by helicopter along with the rest of the team, including the wounded.
The driver of the team bus said one attacker threw a grenade under the bus but it failed to detonate. The driver of a second bus carrying the Australian umpires was killed.
A spokesman for the Sri Lanka High Commission in Islamabad said most of the injured — six players and assistant coach Paul Farbrace — had been hit by shrapnel.
Star batsman Thilan Samaraweera suffered a thigh injury and teammate Tharanga Paranavithana was hit in the chest. Both were hospitalized in stable condition.
The team was scheduled to return to Colombo yesterday aboard a specially chartered plane.
The Sri Lankan team had been invited to play in Pakistan after the Indian team pulled out in the wake of last November’s terror attack in Mumbai, which New Dehli blamed on Pakistan-trained militants.
“One thing I want to say, it’s the same pattern, the same terrorists who attacked Mumbai,” Punjab Governor Salman Taseer said.
But a Pakistani minister pointed the finger at India.
“The evidence which we have got shows that these terrorists entered from across the border from India,” Sardar Nabil Ahmed Gabol, minister of state for shipping, told private Geo television. “This was a conspiracy to defame Pakistan.”
Taser said the assailants had been chased into a nearby commercial and shopping area but police had lost track of the men.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attacks, as Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said he was cutting short a trip to Nepal to return home.
Pakistan’s cricket team escaped the attack because they left their hotel five minutes late, coach Intikhab Alam said: “We usually leave the hotel early on the first day because of the toss and on the second and third day we leave the hotel a bit late, so captain Younus Khan decided to leave at 8:35 but the Sri Lankan team left five minutes before us.”
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
STAY WARM: Sixty-three nontraumatic incidents of OHCA were reported on Feb. 1, the most for a single day this year, the National Fire Agency said A total of 415 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) occurred this month as of Saturday, data from the National Fire Agency showed as doctors advised people to stay warm amid cold weather, particularly people with cardiovascular disease. The Central Weather Administration yesterday issued a low temperature warning nationwide except for Penghu County, anticipating sustained lows of 10°C or a dip to below 6°C in Nantou, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as areas north of Yunlin County. The coldest temperature recorded in flat areas of Taiwan proper yesterday morning was 6.4°C in New Taipei City’s Shiding District (石碇). Sixty-three nontraumatic OHCA
COMMITTED: Lai said that Taiwan deeply appreciated the leaders’ statement, adding that the nation would remain steadfast in working to advance regional peace and prosperity US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait in a joint statement issued after they met in Washington for their first official meeting. Trump and Ishiba “affirmed their determination to pursue a new golden age for US-Japan relations that upholds a free and open Indo-Pacific and brings peace and prosperity to a violent and disorderly world,” the US-Japan Joint Leaders’ Statement said. “The two leaders emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of security and prosperity for the
RSS