Sri Lanka cricket team attack: Echoes of Mumbai
Deadly attack upon Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore has hallmarks of terrorist strike in Mumbai, regional governor says
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Tuesday, 03, Mar 2009 06:15
The deadly attack upon the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore has all the hallmarks of the terrorist strike in Mumbai last year, officials have said.
At least six cricketers were injured in the attack, which also claimed the lives of five Pakistani policemen.
A dozen gunmen armed with automatic rifles and hand grenades are said to have attacked the touring team's convoy in the Punjab capital earlier today.
And the state's governor has told journalists he can see similarities between the incident and the terrorist attack upon Mumbai last November, when ten gunmen killed 179 people.
"One thing I want to say it's the same pattern, the same terrorists who attacked Mumbai," said Punjab governor Salman Taseer.
"They are trained criminals. They were not common people. The kind of weaponry they had, the kind of arms they had, the way they attacked... they were not common citizens, they were obviously trained."
India blames Punjab-based Islamic terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attack upon Mumbai, which Pakistan accepts was partly concocted on its own soil.