Terror Attack In Pakistan
Another highly organized Islamic terror attack in Pakistan, as a team of killers attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team, with tactics similar to the Mumbai terrorists.
In a commando-style operation, a dozen gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in the heart of Lahore, Pakistan’s cultural and political hub, at 8:45 Tuesday morning. The attackers fired rockets, grenades and multiple rounds of ammunition at the team’s bus and the police escorting it, killing eight people and injuring six. To some eyewitnesses, it was last November’s Mumbai attacks replayed on Pakistani soil. (See pictures of this terrorist attack.)
Amid thick morning traffic in Lahore’s Liberty Square, the gunmen ambushed the bus as it approached the Gaddaffi cricket stadium. “I heard the attack and spun around,” recalls Abdul Ghani Butt, 30, a foreign-currency dealer who was on his way to work at the time. “It was just like the Mumbai attacks. They were young, about 25-to-30 years of age, coming from different directions. Some were clean-shaven, others bearded. They were wearing tracksuits and carried backpacks. One of the men then put down his rocket launcher and pulled out a rifle. He changed the magazine so quickly that it could only have been done by a professional. The others were walking around so calmly, across the grass in the roundabout.”
The gunmen killed five policemen, two bystanders and the bus driver. Six members of the Sri Lankan cricket team were injured. Two of the cricketers were shot, while others sustained minor injuries from flying debris. The reserve umpire for the ongoing test match, Ahsan Raza, a Pakistani, is in critical condition.