Sri Lankan Cricket Team Attacked By Gunmen

Gunmen today carried out a commando-style attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team and their police escort in Lahore, Pakistan, injuring up to six of the visiting players.

In scenes reminiscent of the terrorist attack on Mumbai in November, up to 12 gunmen attacked with heavy weapons, spraying the Sri Lankan team bus with bullets as it drove to the Gadaffi stadium in Lahore, witnesses and cricket officials said.

Several players were reported to have received "superficial" injuries. Other early reports said five policemen were killed and three injured.

Sri Lankan media, quoting the sports minister, said four players – Kumar Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis, Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavithana – suffered minor injuries in the attack. Other reports said six had been hurt.

Television footage showed glimpses of the assailants, running through the streets, with machine guns in their hands and rucksacks on their backs.

The attack happened in Gulberg, a upmarket area of the city, at around 9am local time. The gunmen remain at large.

Police cordoned off the area, saying they would kill or capture the terrorists.

Habibur Rehman, the leading policeman in the Lahore city force, said there were around 12 gunmen, at least some of whom arrived in auto-rickshaws.

"Because the police were protecting them [Sri Lankan team], we were the main victims," said Rehman. "They [the gunmen] looked like trained people. The security provided was good."

A rocket launcher and grenades were recovered from the scene.

The Sri Lankan cricketers, which was playing a test match against Pakistan in Lahore, are to be evacuated from the area immediately.

"This was a planned terrorist attack. They had heavy weapons," Salman Taseer, who heads the provincial government as the governor of Punjab. "These were the same methods and the same sort of people as hit Mumbai."

Around 170 people died in Mumbai when militants staged a three-day gun attack on the city in November. Earlier this year, there was an armed attack on government buildings in the middle of Kabul.

The attack in Lahore is another indication that extremists may have adopted new tactics, preferring guns to the suicide bombings that had become their hallmark.

Cricket teams had stopped visiting Pakistan due to the country's deteriorating security situation, with an international tournament cancelled last year.

Australia and India refused to go on pre-planned tours, and it was with great difficulty that the Pakistani cricket authorities persuaded Sri Lanka to tour the country.

Sanath Jayasuriya, a Sri Lankan cricketer who was not part of the touring team, said that, even in conflict-torn Sri Lanka, cricketers never became the target.

"The good news is that they [the team] are all safe," Jayasuriya added.

Squad member Kumar Sangakkara told the Sri Lankan radio station Yes-FM that "all the players are completely out of danger." "Luckily there's nothing serious and everyone is fine," he added.

The second Test between Sri Lanka and Pakistan has been called off, according to a Sri Lankan cricket board official. "We are trying to bring the team back as quickly as possible. The test match has been canceled," the official told Reuters.

The Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, condemned the attack on his country's cricket team and called for the players to come home immediately.

In a statement on Tuesday, Rajapaksa described the attack as cowardly. He ordered his foreign minister to immediately travel to Pakistan to help assist with the team's evacuation and ensure they were safe and secure. Rajapaksa is currently on a visit to Nepal.

Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, a military spokesman, said authorities did not believe the attack was carried out by the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.

Government forces are on the brink of defeating the rebels in the north and ending a 25-year civil war.

India's home minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, speaking in New Delhi, said his country condemned the attack. "We are sorry for the Sri Lankan team," he said.

Police chief Haji Habibur Rehman said five policemen died in the attack.

Today's developments will probably mean the end of international cricket in Pakistan for months, if not years. "It is terrible incident and I am lost for words," Steve Davis, an Australian who was umpiring the match, said.

Nadeem Ghauri, a Pakistani umpire who witnessed the attack, said the umpires were behind the bus carrying Sri Lanka's players when they suddenly heard gunshots.

"The firing started continued for 15 minutes," he said, adding: "Our driver was hit, and he was injured."

The driver of one of the vehicles in the convoy told Pakistan's Express news channel that he saw a man firing a rocket toward their van. Someone then someone hurled a grenade, but the weapons missed the vehicle.