Imran Khan had attained notoriety with his huge reverse swings with a doctored cricket ball. So his oft-repeated assertion, that terrorists will never attack cricketers, should have been taken by the Pak security establishment with a large dose of salt.
The Lahore attack on Sri Lankan visiting cricketers was shocking, to say the least. But these were no run-of-the-mill terrorists out to create mayhem. A dozen terrorists with automatic weapons, rocket launchers and grenades could not blow up the Sri Lanka team bus? No security cordon fighting back? Not a single terrorist even slightly injured - let alone captured or killed?
No, this wasn't a terrorist attack at all. The whole situation seemed stage managed by the Pak army and/or ISI to create an impression that Pakistan is as much under terrorists' threat as USA and India. And to divert attention from the fact that Pakistan is the epicenter of world terrorism.
Pak spokespersons - suffering from severe foot-in-the-mouth disease - were promptly on TV channels blaming India. One even went so far as to compare the Lahore attack to 9/11 in 2001 and the Nov 26, '08 Mumbai attacks.
Come on, neighbours! Get real! More than 3000 dead in a day's coordinated attacks in different cities in the USA in 2001. Nearly 300 dead in 3 days of mayhem in different locations in Mumbai last year. 6 Pakistani cops shot in a 2 hours operation in a city roundabout in Lahore. Are these events comparable??
The Sri Lankan cricketers fortunately escaped with minor injuries and my condolences go out to their families for the trauma and agony they suffered. But why did the team make the unscheduled visit to Pakistan in the first place?
Did the Sri Lanka authorities feel that India was exaggerating the security threat by cancelling their scheduled Pakistan trip? Or were they over confident after cornering the vicious LTTE terrorists in their own country? Either way, it was a terrible call.
The time has come to stop molly-coddling the Pakistan establishment because they have a few nuclear weapons. The time has come for the world to realise that a Frankenstein has been created and unleashed. The time has come to stop the flow of money to the Jihadi movement nurtured by the CIA and Saudi Arabia. The time has come to stop all international cricket events in Pakistan.
Posts
