The attacks on Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore has left not only the public stunned, but it has also dragged the agencies into a state of shock. A life line for not only Pakistan’s cricket, but rather our overall International image has been lost for good. Even more shocking is the fact that we are still clueless regarding not only the whereabout, but the real hand behind it. One thing is for sure, most fingers are pointing to the Eastern neighbour, and this is not at all wrong. Like previously, our establishment will take its time and under its ultra sensitive diplomatic code of conduct, they will simply decline this fact.
A comparision was made immediately between last year Mumbai and Liberty attacks. Here we are going to prove to the whole world, especially our neighbour how does it differ?
Remember those 10 or 12 attackers who played havoc in Mumbai. First of all they came on a suicide mission; by this I am referring to the fact that they never made any attempt to escape. So it shows that they had no second thoughts and made a fight to their end. This is also the fact that gave Indians to hunt them down and also capture one out of them, namely Ajmal Kasab. Those referring to the security lapse must go back to the footing of that incident, where the Indian police was shown running from door to door. It was Indian “Special Task Force†which only succeeded when the attackers ran out of energy, not by their own skills.
Secondly, the question has been raised regarding there intention of taking the players as hostage. This is a wishful thinking, because they never showed any intention for this. The bus went directly to the Gadaffi Stadium, which was hardly at 10 minutes walk. If they were there to put up a fight till the end, they should have followed them back to the stadium, which they never did.
This leaves us with very limited reasoning. Their tactic was very close to the classical “ Hostage Evacuationâ€, where you strike at the target with maximum strength and make a run out of the scene. This is exactly what they did. So for that you do not need to be a student of any “Madrissa†of Pakistan, rather you have to be trained in this field by a superior agency, of course how can we rule out the association of RAW and MOSSAD.
One other factor is worth mentioning, which is the LTTE. For a reminder, this is the non state actor responsible for the invention of “modern suicide bombingâ€, and they have no problem of hesitation from this. The way the attackers got rid of their explosives, simply shows that LTTE is a far cry from this attack. So the only culprit now is RAW, as the objective attackers in mind were following:
a. Either to eliminate the entire target OR
b. Atleast make a shock wave in the aftermath of the attack, which will hurt your enemy for a longer time to come.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what has been achieved. They have sealed not only the fate of this series with Sri Lanka and 2011 World Cup, but on the other hand Lahore attack has also made the claim firm of both Indians and Americans that we are unable to eliminate or fight these terrorist.
Our local Jihadis only go for the White skin and especially the Western targets, and Sri Lankan team is totally different story.
Lastly, we have to go back to the tone of Pranab Mukherjee, immediately after the attack. His speech was simply a piece of “Rubbish†and “Unethicalâ€. Instead of condoling the grieved neighbour, it seems that he was waiting in advance for the episode, and gain more International sympathy to sideline Pakistan, internationally.
This behaviour should serve as a wake up call for our leadership, who are still hesitating to name the culprit, even when it has set half of our country on fire. God knows what they are waiting for, but the 160 million people of Pakistan are clear who did it, and this should be responded aggressively, atleast at diplomatic level.
At the same time, or rather I should precisely say that during the same month, Lahore has been struck again, this time the Police Cadet School. Though a comparison has been made with the Liberty Attack, there are many clear differences between them. One cannot remain aloof, but has to comment on the fact that, extreme negligence was responsible for both the episodes. This time around, we also have TTP Leader Baitullah Mehsud accepting the blame. The way the attackers took hostage and fought on, makes the point clear that, those involved in the Liberty Attack were following a different approach. It’s a test for newly restored CM Shahbaz Sharif to counter the growing terrorist activities in Punjab lately.
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