I Love Sri Lanka

The following video shows the attack.

“As the Sri Lankan team was approaching the stadium for the test match this morning, about a half a kilometre away from the stadium, two cars entered the roundabout… and fired a grenade,” said Graham Usher, a British journalist, who was approaching the area just as the attack took place.

“As they did this, three other gunmen ran into the roundabout, where the bus was, opened fire on a police vehicle – where a police officer was killed – and then opened fire on the bus, spraying the bus we understand with machine gun fire,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.

The driver of the bus carrying the Sri Lankan team, Khalil Ahmed, said: “As we approached the city’s Liberty Roundabout, I slowed down. Just then what seemed to be a rocket was fired at my coach, but it missed and I think flew over the top of the vehicle.

“Almost immediately afterwards a person ran in front of the bus and threw a grenade in our direction. But it rolled underneath the coach and did not seem to cause that much damage.

This is a chilling recounting a very very close miss. Somethings which went wrong for the attackers:

• The rocket which was fired initially missed the bus.
• The grenade exploding beneath the bus didn’t do much damage
• The machine gun fire could not create any mortal casualties due the fast response of the cricketers who layed flat on the bus floor.
• The bus driver was able to speed of to the Gadafi stadium even with some tires flat from the well targeted fire.

This was not some off hand act of terror. It was a well planned act of violence by a group of well trained personnel. Some sources disclose that these attackers bare strong resembling to the Mumbai attackers who were similarly well equipped and trained. It was maybe sheer chance that we as a nation are not in mourning.

So why we must ask was the purpose of such an well planned attack. Was it the same terrorist group “Lashkar-e-Taiba” (“its objective is to introduce an Islamic state in South Asia“) who, trying to instigate a rift between south Asian relations (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka). Was it a branch of some Indian or Pakistani LTTE cell who were acting to call attention on the hourly severing condition of their failed mission in Sri Lanka. Or was it a part of something else? These questions are yet to be answered. Like the assassination of Benazir Bhutto & the Mumbai attacks will this also be a bureaucratic Sambol.

Was it also not irresponsible of our government and the cricket board to accept this invitation. This is after so many countries refusing due security risks and unrest in Pakistan. Some members of Sri Lankas parliament were ecstatic on public media to announce their brave decision to support Pakistan by sending the players for the matches. If so, they should have made sure and assessed the security of the players better. Is it also not a politically motivated action, to  further a parties agenda which puts our national heroes at risk and which is unpatriotic to the bone.