Pakistani minister: India to blame for cricket attack

A Pakistani minister has blamed India for the deadly terrorist attack which killed several police officers and a civilian, and wounded members of the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore today.

A dozen men attacked Sri Lanka's cricket team with rifles, grenades and rocket launchers ahead of a matc, wounding seven players and a coach from Britain in a brazen assault on South Asia's most beloved sport. An assistant coach was also wounded, but the players' and coach's injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

The Reuters news agency reports that Pakistani state shipping minister Sardar Nabil Ahmed Gabol has accused India of conspiring to defame Pakistan internationally. He is reported as saying that the gunmen responsible for the attack entered Pakistan across the Indian border.

The assailants ambushed the convoy carrying the squad and match officials at a traffic circle close to the main sports stadium in the eastern city of Lahore, triggering a 15-minute gunbattle with police guarding the vehicles.

None of the attackers were killed or captured at the scene, city police chief Haji Habibur Rehman said. Authorities did not speculate on the identities of the attackers or their motives.

The attack reinforced perceptions that nuclear-armed Pakistan is veering out of control and will end any hopes of international cricket teams - or any sports teams - playing in the country for months, if not years. Even before the incident, most cricket teams choose not to tour the country because of security concerns.

The attack came three months after the Mumbai terror attacks, which were allegedly carried out by Pakistan militants.

Two Sri Lankan players - Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavitana - were being treated for injuries in hospital but were stable, said Chamara Ranavira, a spokesman for the Sri Lankan High Commission.

Team captain Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis, Suranka Lakmal and Chaminda Vaas had minor injuries, the Sri Lankan Cricket Board said. Ranavira said British assistant coach Paul Farbrace also sustained minor injuries.

Australian head coach Trevor Bayliss was not wounded, Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry said, refuting earlier reports he had minor wounds.

Veteran batsman Sangakkara told Sri Lankan radio station Yes-FM that "all the players are completely out of danger."

Authorities cancelled the test match and the Lahore governor said the team was flying home. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa condemned the attack and ordered his foreign minister to immediately travel to Pakistan to help assist in the team's evacuation and ensure they are safe.

TV footage of the attack showed gunmen with backpacks - apparently the attackers - firing at the convoy as they retreated from the scene, with several damaged vehicles and a lone, unexploded grenade lying on the ground. Other video showed the bodies of three people crumpled on the ground.

"It is a terrible incident and I am lost for words," said Steve Davis, an Australian who was umpiring the match.

Nadeem Ghauri, a Pakistani umpire who witnessed the attack, said the umpires were behind a bus of Sri Lankan players when suddenly they heard gunshots.

"The firing started at about 8:40 and it continued for 15 minutes," he said, adding "our driver was hit, and he was injured."

Lahore police chief Rehman said officers were hunting down the attackers who managed to flee. "Our police sacrificed their lives to protect the Sri Lankan team."

Three hours after the attack, at least Sri Lankan eight players and team officials left the Gadaffi stadium in Lahore on a Pakistani army helicopter that took off from the pitch. It was not immediately clear where the chopper was heading.

Haider Ashraf, a senior police official, said six policemen and a civilian died in the attack. It was unclear whether the civilian was a passer-by or someone traveling in the convoy.

Sri Lanka had agreed to this tour - allowing Pakistan to host its first test matches in 14 months - only after India and Australia postponed scheduled trips.

Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said little could be done to stop such an attack.

"I think the Pakistani authorities have provided adequate security but as we know from experience ... there is never enough security to counter a well organized and determined terrorist group."

The International Cricket Board quickly moved to condemn the attack.

"We note with dismay and regret the events of this morning in Lahore and we condemn this attack without reservation," ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said in a statement. "It is a source of great sadness that there have been a number of fatalities in this attack and it is also very upsetting for the wider cricket family that some of the Sri Lanka players and one match official have been injured in this attack."

Pakistan is battling a ferocious insurgency by Islamist militants with links to al-Qaida who have staged high-profile attacks on civilian targets before.

One militant group likely to fall under particular suspicion is Lashkar-e-Taiba, the network blamed for the Mumbai terror attacks. The group has been targeted by Pakistani authorities since then and its stronghold is in eastern Pakistan.

The nature of the attack - coordinated, using multiple gunmen armed with explosives - is reminiscent of the Mumbai strikes in November that raised tensions between Pakistan and India.

In the past, India and Pakistan have blamed each other for attacks on their territories. Any allegations like that will trigger fresh tensions between the countries, which are already dangerously high. The Indian government refused permission for the national cricket team to tour Pakistan last month.

Authorities will also consider possible links to Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger separatist rebels who are being badly hit in a military offensive at home, though Sri Lankan military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara says authorities there did not believe the group was responsible.

Sri Lanka appeared on the brink of crushing the Tamil Tiger rebels after more than a quarter century of civil war. In recent months, government forces have pushed the guerrillas out of much of the de facto state.

The Tamil Tigers, who are fighting for an independent state for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority, rarely launch attacks outside Sri Lanka, though their most prominent attack - the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by a female suicide bomber - took place at an election rally in India in 1991.

Most of the violence in Pakistan occurs in its northwest regions bordering Afghanistan, where Taleban and al-Qaida militants have established strongholds. Lahore has not been immune from militant violence, however.

- AP, AGENCIES