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| India-Pakistan | |
| Judge blames negligent police in Sri Lankan team attack | |
| 2010-07-31 | |
| [Dawn] Senior Pakistan police officers have been heavily criticized in a judge's report for being ill-prepared, poorly equipped and incompetent in their efforts to prevent a terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team bus last year. Calling one officer a lazy coward, Shabbar Raza Rizvi of Lahore High Court identified more than a dozen senior policemen in a report on the attack that is due to be submitted to the International Cricket Council. Excerpts of the 120-page report, which has not been made public, were provided to The Associated Press on Friday. Rizvi wrote that police officials failed to perform their duties on March 3, 2009 when gunmen killed six policemen and a van driver in the team convoy, and injured several Sri Lanka players and team officials. Senior Lahore police officer Haji Habibur Rehman was supposed to be the overall commander of the Sri Lanka team's security, but Rizvi said he failed to do his job. "I wish I had seen him marching on the road ... or at least sitting in his office before 8 a.m.," Rizvi wrote. "Unfortunately, he only became visible and audible after the occurrence had taken place." The Pakistan Cricket Board is still waiting for permission from the government to submit the report to the ICC despite reminders by the game's governing body. The report was completed last year. A spokesman for the ICC confirmed it had not received the report and had no further comment. The ICC carried out its own investigation following the attack. It recommended a series of security measures to be implemented by member countries, including requiring cricket boards to have security managers and establish security standards. After the attack, the ICC ruled that Pakistan could no longer serve as one of the hosts for the 2011 World Cup and the Pakistan team was forced to host its home matches at neutral venues -- it has used the United Arab Emirates and England as bases. In his report, Rizvi also criticized police Deputy Inspector General Amjad Javed Saleemi for a "dereliction of duty" after Saleemi admitted he was not sure whether police officers in the area of the attack were even on duty. "Obviously he (Saleemi) would have only known ... if he himself were there," Rizvi wrote. "He made contradictory statements before me and did not have moral courage to state the truth."
"He had the direct responsibility ... and placement of snipers on high-rise buildings is an area of his jurisdiction," Rizvi said. "He miserably failed to do that and was absent from duty when the occurrence took place." Rizvi also described Abdur Rahman, who supervised the station near the attack, as "a coward and lazy" after he and officers under his command came upon the gunmen but fled. According to Rizva, the police force were not well-equipped and didn't have a special security plan needed to host such a high-profile event. | |
| Posted by:Fred |