Cricket ref: Pakistan police fled during ambush

[David]

AP


LAHORE, Pakistan – A British referee accused police Wednesday of abandoning him and other match officials in the deadly ambush of the Sri Lankan cricket team, as officers said their manhunt for the attackers was making little headway.

The allegations by Chris Broad were denied by Pakistani cricket and government officials, who pointed out that six police officers were killed in the attack Tuesday by up to 14 assailants toting assault rifles, grenades and at least one rocket launcher.

The attack in the eastern city of Lahore came at a time of mounting political turmoil in the nuclear-armed country and added to fears it was losing the battle against Islamist extremists blamed for a series of high-profile attacks.

There are also concerns over whether Pakistani police will be able to bring the perpetrators to justice — underscored by conflicting accounts of the investigation offered Wednesday. One police official said several suspects had been taken into custody, though none of the gunmen was tracked down. Hours later, however, another official denied anyone had been arrested.

Referee Broad was traveling in a van in the same convoy as the Sri Lankan team bus, which stopped for around 1 1/2 minutes as gunfire rung out before gunning for the stadium.

His driver was killed and a fellow passenger — fourth official Ahsan Raza — was hit by a bullet and critically injured.

"There was not a sign of a policeman anywhere," Broad said Wednesday following his arrival back in Britain. "They had clearly left the scene and left us to be sitting ducks." He did not say how long his vehicle was stationary. Other witnesses have spoken of police and the gunmen trading fire for around 15 minutes during the attack.

"How can Chris Broad say this when six policemen were killed?" Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ijaz Butt told The Associated Press. He declined further comment until he had a chance to speak to Broad.

Lahore police chief Haji Habibur Rehman said police raided locations in Lahore and surrounding districts and arrested "some suspects." He gave no details of their alleged roles, or the precise number detained, but said some were picked up at a Lahore hostel, where bloodstained clothes were also found.

He added: "So far we have not made any headway toward the perpetrators."

But later, Salah ud Din Niazi, the officer in charge of the probe, told The Associated Press no arrests had been made and no one had been questioned.

None of the gunmen was killed, and all apparently escaped into this teeming city after a gunbattle with the convoy's security detail.

Pakistani police have a poor record of investigating terrorist attacks and often round up people in the immediate aftermath of assaults who are never charged or release contradictory information.

Islamist militants are widely suspected to be behind the attack, but authorities have not explicitly stated this.

"Our guys were getting hurt and screaming, but we couldn't help each other," Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said when the team arrived home in Colombo early Wednesday. "None of us thought that we would come alive out of the situation."

Veteran Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan spoke of the chaos on the bus during the attack.

"All the while bullets were being sprayed at our bus, people around me were shouting," he said. "I am glad to be back."

But Jayawardene added that growing up in Sri Lanka, which has seen scores of terrorist attacks related to the country's civil war, meant the players had a "natural instinct" that made them immediately hit the floor at the first sound of gunfire.

"We are used to hearing, seeing these things. Firing, bombings. So we ducked under our seats when the firing began," he told reporters.

The attack ended Pakistan's hopes of hosting international cricket teams — or any high profile sports events — for months, if not years. Even before Tuesday, most squads chose not to tour the cricket-obsessed country for security reasons

Pakistan has a web of militant networks, some with links to al-Qaida and the Taliban, which have staged other high-profile strikes in a bid to destabilize the government and punish it for its support of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

The assault bore many similarities to last year's three-day hostage drama in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai, and one group likely to fall under suspicion is Lashkar-e-Taiba, the network blamed for the November attacks, when 10 gunmen targeted luxury hotels, a Jewish center and other sites, killing 164 people.

The group has been targeted by Pakistani authorities since then, and its stronghold is in eastern Pakistan.

Besides the six police officers, a driver of a vehicle in the convoy was also killed. Seven Sri Lankan players, a Pakistani umpire and a coach from Britain were wounded, none with life-threatening injuries.