Former President General Pervez Musharraf on Thursday regretted that the Sri Lankan team was not provided adequate security and noted that the response by the elite police force to the attack was disappointing.

“If they were really elite commandos as is being reported they should have killed most of the attackers,” Musharraf said while talking to reporters at PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain’s residence.

“It is a sad reflection on their competence that none of the 12 assailants was captured or killed,” he said while pointing out that they escaped unscathed.

The former President condemned the Lahore attack and termed it a conspiracy to weaken the country.

To a suggestion that the Indian spy agency RAW was involved, Musharraf called for caution while pointing accusing finger towards any country.

“There should be no conjecture or statement without substantive evidence”, he remarked. Musharraf visited Shujaat’s residence in Lahore to condole the death of his mother.

Media reports said he also discussed the prevailing political situation in the country with Chaudhry Shujaat and other PML-Q leaders present there.

One report claimed that Musharraf advised the PML-Q leaders to align with the PPP and join a PPP-led government in Punjab instead of the PML-N.

It was not clear as to how Shujaat responded to the advice but his spokesman insisted that no political discussion took place.

Responding to questions from reporters before leaving Shujaat’s residence, Musharraf avoided any political comment and said he might speak about political issues at an appropriate time.

Talking to reporters outside Parliament House on Thursday, Malik said preliminary investigation had indicated Al-Qaeda’s hand in the attack.

Hence, his statement nullifies the stand of the hardliners in Pakistan, who had alleged that Indian spy agency RAW had masterminded the attack to avenge the Mumbai carnage.

Islamabad, March 5
Acknowledging that the vehicles used to escort the Sri Lankan team’s motorcade were “not adequate”, a top Pakistani official has said that a security failure led to the terrorist attack on the convoy in Lahore.

There were “certain security lapses which are very vivid and very clear”, Lahore Commissioner Khusro Pervaiz said.

He acknowledged that police reinforcements had failed to arrive at the site of the attack, the busy Liberty traffic roundabout.

“The gunmen were meant to be combated by back-up police support, which didn’t arrive,” Pervaiz told Dawn News.

“All convoys are provided outer cordons, but in this case the outer cordon did not respond, or it was not enough,” he said.

The Pakistan government had promised the Sri Lankan team “presidential level” security when it agreed to tour the country after several other foreign teams had refused. However, Pervaiz said they were given only “VVIP-level security”.

Pervaiz’s comments came in the wake of referee Chris Broad’s criticism of the security provided to the Sri Lankan team.

Broad said the players and other cricket officials were abandoned and left like “sitting ducks” when a dozen heavily armed terrorists targeted the convoy.

Lahore’s biggest police station is located 200 yards from the site of the attack and another police station is located just over a kilometre away.

Though the attack lasted 20 to 30 minutes, no reinforcements reached the spot.

Pervaiz also said the “top priority of the police escorts with the Sri Lankan team was to protect them and transport them to a safe location, not to combat the gunmen”.

Asked why police had not locked down surrounding areas to trace the attackers, he said: “Lahore is very difficult to be put under curfew. So instead we decided to chase the assailants using information of their escape routes”.

He said “authorities accept the tragic security failure and we will learn from it”.

The attack came a few days after several changes in the Lahore police set-up following the imposition governor's rule in Punjab.

Critics said this was one of the reasons that led to oversight and security failure.

Pervaiz said the government's investigation team would determine who should be held accountable for the security failure. — PTI

Lahore, March 5
Pakistani investigators have identified the terrorists behind the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer said today. He did not name any of the suspects.

“We have identified the people who have carried out the attack. We are after them. The Army and the ISI are helping in tracking down the gunmen,” Taseer told reporters. He said the investigators had found a large amount of weapons. “It was like a small army.”

About 12 gunmen ambushed the bus ferrying the Sri Lankan team to the Gaddafi stadium on Tuesday, leaving six players and an assistant coach injured and eight people dead. The gunmen fled after the attack.

The Governor said he did not want to share details, as a high-level committee had been constituted to probe the attack and submit its report within three days.

Investigators questioned five suspects, who are believed to have helped the terrorists. The suspects claimed that the attackers had stayed in the city for a month before striking.

They were also trying to trace the persons whose telephone numbers were found on the SIM cards of the mobile left behind by the terrorists.

One of the suspects, a resident of Rehmanpura, had a photograph of one of the attackers, the Dawn newspaper said quoting sources.

Babar Shahzad, who had reportedly purchased one of the SIMs used by the attackers, and Dilawar Hussain, a teenager, were picked up from a village at Rahim Yar Khan in southern Punjab. The three other suspects were detained in Lahore.

Faced with all round criticism for the lax security, the Punjab Governor sought to put a brave front, saying "the security for the Sri Lankan team was adequate" and that all standard procedures had been followed.

Asked about match referee Chris Broad's comments that they were left with no security when the terrorists started firing and were "sitting ducks", Taseer said it was unfortunate that he had made such comments.

The Governor also attacked Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram for describing Pakistani security as hopeless.

"In Mumbai, for six hours, nobody came and the terrorists left many dead. Our security personnel kept fighting till the end."

Former President Pervez Musharraf flayed the security forces for not reacting fast and taking the terrorists head-on. — PTI

United Nations, March 5
India has underlined the need for expansion of the UN Security Council, saying any reform that did not increase the permanent members of the top group would be “incomplete and futile”.

Pointing out that an overwhelming majority of member states strongly supports expansion in both the categories, Indian UN Ambassador Nirupam Sen said any reform that does not increase the number of permanent members would be “incomplete and futile”.

Participating in the informal inter-governmental discussion on the expansion of the 15-member council, Sen strongly rubbished the argument of a minority of member States that since the expansion of both categories cannot be fulfilled, the intermediate option is the best way forward.

Sen said such an argument is “fallacious” as the number of countries which oppose the interim model far exceed those who support it.

The interim option is untenable, he said, because there is unanimous recognition that the 15-member council does not reflect the realities of 21st century and is not representative of a vast majority of its membership.

The primary reason for this, he told the member States, was that its composition of permanent members, which dates back to post World War II scenario, was flawed.

Thus the council expansion that maintained the same permanent members could not bring it in line with today’s realities or enhance its legitimacy, “representativity” or effectiveness. — PTI