ISLAMABAD: Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said yesterday he could not rule out the possibility that Tamil Tigers were involved in the attack on his country’s cricket team in Lahore.
Seven Sri Lankan players, along with an assistant coach, were injured and eight Pakistanis, including six policemen, killed in the attack, as the team’s bus headed to the stadium on Tuesday.
The foreign minister, who flew to Lahore to oversee the team’s evacuation, met Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
“We do not rule out� the involvement of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as they steadily lose territory to government forces, he told a joint news conference with Qureshi. “Desperation of LTTE is something we are all looking at.�
The Sri Lankan cricket side was in Pakistan in place of the Indian team, which pulled out of a scheduled tour following the Mumbai attacks in November that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
The foreign minister said the investigation into the Lahore attacks was the responsibility of Pakistan and that “we have confidence in Pakistan.�
Qureshi said Pakistan had set up a special investigation committee which had “carried out very good work in very short time� but he refused to elaborate.
During his meeting with Gilani, Bogollagama said that in cooperation with friendly countries like Pakistan, his government “would ensure that the LTTE terrorists’ designs to find sanctuaries abroad are foiled.� The meeting was attended by senior defense and Interior Ministry officials, including intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha.
Pakistan’s Minister of State for Shipping Sardar Nabil Ahmed Gabol accused India of being behind the attack despite there being no evidence.
“The evidence which we have got shows that these terrorists entered from across the border from India,� Gabol told Geo TV. Retired Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul, a former head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), told one TV channel that the LTTE, cornered by the army in Sri Lanka, had carried it out at the behest of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). “It is all too obvious that it (the attacks in Lahore) is the handiwork of the Indian intelligence,� Gul was quoted as saying in Daily Times. “We have to now walk out of our participation in war against terrorism. We will fight terrorism in our own way,� said Gul.
In Lahore, police chief Haji Habibur Rehman said: “Three suspected terrorists are being interrogated ... We are making progress.�
A bloodstained shirt and a live hand grenade were seized overnight by police from a private hostel in Gulberg. There were media reports that some of the attackers were among the detained people, but Rehman did not confirm this.
Dawn News reported that 24 suspects have been arrested in connection with the terror attack. Among those detained are 12 boys from a hostel in Gulberg area where Gaddafi Stadium and Liberty Chowk are situated.
The Punjab government yesterday announced a $125,000 reward for any leads, publishing ads in national newspapers, showing television still images in which two terrorists were pictured from two angles carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles and backpacks.
Investigators said an initial inquiry indicated that the attackers intended to take the cricketers hostage rather than kill them.
Security officials seized a large cache of arms and ammunition, including a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and hand grenades, abandoned by the attackers at different points around the site of the attack.
The gunmen’s backpacks were also filled with food and high-calorie dry fruits, a possible indication that they were preparing for an extended hostage situation.
— With input from agencies