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Pakistain: Video footage shows 'calm' gunmen after attack
(AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Pakistan's News TV released video footage on Thursday of two of the armed gunmen who carried out the violent attack against Sri Lanka's cricket team in the eastern city of Lahore. The vision showed the gunmen looking calm and composed after the attack that shook the city on Tuesday.The footage showed the two men entering a narrow street after the deadly attack before they left on a motorcycle. The gunmen did not encounter any member of the Pakistani security force, and appeared to have no fear of being stopped, the footage showed. "The reason is obvious," commented the opposition Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz Sharif group's spokesperson Siddiqul Farooq. "The entire focus of the Punjab's administration was to contain Nawaz Sharif's demonstration," Farooq said. He was referring to last week's protests in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, over a ruling by Pakistan's Supreme Court preventing PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz from contesting general elections in 2013. The ruling removing Shahbaz Sharif as head of the provincial government and dismissing the entire provincial cabinet. "Therefore they did not chalk out any security plan which would have ensured security of the team as well as the security of the nearby streets," Farooq maintained. Some experts have clamed Punjab-based militants were responsible for the attacks and that they may have planned to take the Sri Lankan cricket team hostage to extract concessions over jailed militants and the safe passage of their colleagues to the lawless North Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan. As evidence experts said the gunman appeared to have targeted police escorting the team bus. Six policemen escorting the Sri Lankan cricket team and a driver died in the attack, and eight cricketers were injured. Adnkronos International's sources confirmed the newly appointed inspector general of police, Khawaja Khalid Farooq, spent hours late on Monday with the governor of Punjab, Salmaan Taseer, discussing opposition protests. There have been calls from the opposition for Taseer to resign since the Lahore attack. He automatically became chief executive of the province following last week's Supreme Court ruling. The Punjab administration is pondering how to handle the opposition parties as well as forthcoming protests by lawyers and a planned sit-in in the capital, Islamabad. Posted by: Fred 2009-03-05 |
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