We were sitting ducks, say umpires – TERROR STRIKES CRICKET
Hodge, Amanda. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 06 Mar 2009: 7.
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Abstract
AUSTRALIAN and British umpires caught in Tuesday’s bloody ambush on the Sri Lankan cricket team have accused Pakistan’s security forces of leaving them like “sitting ducks”, amid mounting speculation their attackers had an accomplice within the team’s security detail.
Broad said he had been promised “presidential-style” security after raising concerns ahead of the tour and was “extremely angry” atthe Pakistani Government’s failure to deliver.
Australian umpire [Simon Taufel] said he could not understand why the team’s security force had failed to protect them when theambush occurred. “We were promised a nine (out of 10 security detail) and got delivered a two,” he said yesterday. “The gunfire, it just kept going. We thought, `When’s it going to stop? Who’s going to come and save us, how are we going to get out of here?’
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AUSTRALIAN and British umpires caught in Tuesday’s bloody ambush on the Sri Lankan cricket team have accused Pakistan’s security forces of leaving them like “sitting ducks”, amid mounting speculation their attackers had an accomplice within the team’s security detail.
While Pakistan has hailed its security officers and police as heroes and martyrs, Australian umpires Steve Davis and Simon Taufel, and their British counterpart Chris Broad, claimed their security officers abandoned them as 12 heavily armed and masked gunmen attacked their convoy, spraying the Sri Lankan team bus and accompanying vehicles with bullets and grenades.
The cricketers were travelling in the convoy to Lahore’s Gadaffi stadium on Tuesday morning when the terrorists ambushed them atthe Liberty Chowk roundabout, less than 100m from the stadium gates.
Six policemen and two civilians were killed in the 25-minute attack. Six Sri Lankan players and an assistant coach were wounded.
The attack has highlighted the Pakistani Government’s inability to contain terrorism within its borders — so much so that its foreign office was forced yesterday to deny rumours a military coup was imminent, aimed at stabilising the failing state.
And the ambush has ensured Pakistan’s isolation from the international cricket fraternity for years to come.
In Britain yesterday, Broad questioned why the Pakistani cricketers changed their morning schedule by leaving five minutes after theSri Lankan team.
“On the first two days both buses left at the same time with escorts,” the former England cricket player told reporters on his return home.
“On this particular day, the Pakistan bus left five minutes after the Sri Lankan bus. Why?
“I thought maybe they were having five or 10 minutes more in the hotel and would turn up later, but after this happened you start to think: `Did someone know something and they held the Pakistan bus back?”‘
Broad said he had been promised “presidential-style” security after raising concerns ahead of the tour and was “extremely angry” atthe Pakistani Government’s failure to deliver.
“There was not a sign of a policeman anywhere,” he said. “They had clearly left the scene and left us to be sitting ducks.”
While Pakistani cricket board chief Ijaz Butt expressed amazement at Broad’s comments, Lahore police commissioner Khusro Pervez yesterday admitted there had been “very vivid and very clear” security lapses.
“The gunmen were meant to be combated by back-up police who didn’t arrive,” he said. “We accept the tragic security failure, and we will learn from it.”
Australian umpire Simon Taufel said he could not understand why the team’s security force had failed to protect them when theambush occurred. “We were promised a nine (out of 10 security detail) and got delivered a two,” he said yesterday. “The gunfire, it just kept going. We thought, `When’s it going to stop? Who’s going to come and save us, how are we going to get out of here?’
“You tell me why supposedly 20 armed commandos were in our convoy, and when the team bus got going again we were left on our own. I don’t have any answers to these questions.”
Taufel said a great deal of attention had been paid to the losses of the Sri Lankan team, but his own group of officials had lost their driver; their fourth umpire, Ehsan Raza, was in hospital fighting for his life; and their liaison officer was injured.
“It’s just a bloody game of cricket and we are in a war. It is not the way life should be or the way sport should be,” Taufel said.
“We were left there stranded and helpless. We were isolated, alone, unaccounted for … We were left on our own in our time of need. We were all expecting to be shot. We knew there was no one around us.”
Australia has offered to send forensic police to Pakistan to assist investigators, who are still struggling for a breakthrough.
Authorities had reportedly rounded up more than 50 suspects yesterday, and raids were continuing around the nation. Investigators believe some of the attackers may have stayed in one of the many hostels dotted around the stadium in the lead-up to Tuesday’s ambush — a theory bolstered by the discovery of bloodstained clothes and a rocket launcher in one hostel.
Suggestions the gunmen had an accomplice inside the team’s security detail grew yesterday following the broadcast of CCTV footage showing the attackers walking away from the scene in Lahore, with no one in pursuit.
The footage, taken from a department store near the Liberty Chowk roundabout, showed eight armed men, in groups of two and three, walking unhurriedly away.
Some of the men can be seen dumping their backpacks, which police later discovered, laden with high-energy food, water and hand grenades.
The grainy footage appears to show three of the alleged terrorists riding away on one motorbike, and two escaping on a second. A third group could be seen walking unharassed through the streets of Lahore, away from the stadium.
Retired Pakistani general and military analyst Shankar Prasad said: “This is proof enough that the entire operation was staged andthe attackers had been allowed to run away. The least that was required was a security lockdown of the area, but even that was not done.”
Sri Lankan cricket captain Mahela Jayawardene added weight to suspicions, saying the gunmen appeared to be firing at will. “They were not under pressure — nobody was firing at them.”
Security experts and Punjabi officials say the attack bore striking similarities to November’s deadly co-ordinated terrorist strikes on Mumbai, which killed more than 170 people, including two Australians.
Foreign minister Mahmood Qureshi said Pakistan had shared “important leads” with visiting Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohita Bogollogama.
Credit: Amanda Hodge, South Asia correspondent, Additional reporting: John Stapleton