Cricketers shot in 'terror attack' on Sri Lankan team

Masked gunmen armed with rifles and rocket launchers attacked Sri Lanka’s national cricket team in Pakistan today, wounding at least two players and killing five police officers.

It was unclear who was behind the assault, but it appeared to have been carefully co-ordinated.

Lahore police chief Haji Habibur Rehman said five policemen died in the shooting and two players were wounded. A Pakistan Cricket Board security official had earlier said eight players were injured.

“It was a terrorist attack and the terrorists used rocket launchers, hand grenades and other weapons,” Mr Rehman said. He said police were hunting down the attackers who managed to flee.

“Our police sacrificed their lives to protect the Sri Lankan team,” he added.

He said one wounded player was hit in the leg while the other was shot in the chest.

Sri Lankan team manager Brendon Kruppu said the team’s batsman, Kumar Sangakkara, was among those injured near Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium where the team were to play.

Mr Rehman said 12 masked gunmen took part in the attack as the players were in a white van. Footage from the scene showed the van with its front window shattered as security officials tried to gain control of the scene at a junction.

The attack comes at a time of unrest in both Pakistan and Sri Lanka, both of which are trying to defeat uprisings.

Security concerns have plagued Pakistan for years and some foreign sports teams have refused to play there.

Most of the violence in Pakistan occurs in its north west regions bordering Afghanistan, where Taliban and al Qaida militants have established strongholds.

Lahore has not been immune from militant violence however, and at least one attack in recent months in the north west has occurred next to a sports stadium.

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 they controlled in the north of the Indian Ocean island nation and trapped them in a small patch of land along the coast.

The rebels, who are fighting for an independent state for Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority, are listed as a terror group by the US and EU and are routinely blamed for suicide bombings and other attacks targeting civilians.

The rebels 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.

A Sri Lankan foreign ministry official said two players - Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavitana - were taken to hospital. He said three more players were slightly injured and the head coach, Australian Trevor Bayliss, also received minor injuries.

A driver of one of the vehicles taking the Sri Lankan players to the stadium told Pakistan’s private Express news channel that he saw a man firing a rocket towards their van, and then someone hurled a grenade, but the weapons missed the vehicle.

The driver said later he heard gunshots and bullets started hitting their van. He said he managed to take the van to the stadium and saw two of the Sri Lankan players were bleeding.

Squad member Kumar Sangakkara told 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 said.

Authorities cancelled the test match and the Lahore governor said the team was flying home.

The attack will surely mean the end of international cricket in Pakistan for months, if not years. Even before, most teams refused to tour the country because of security concerns.

It will also have implications on the game’s future in South Asia, its most lucrative market.

“It is 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 they suddenly heard gunshots.

“The firing started at about 8.40am and it continued for 15 minutes,” he said, adding: “Our driver was hit, and he was injured.”

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa condemned the attack and called for the players to come home immediately.

Mr Rajapaksa, currently on a visit to Nepal, called the attack cowardly and ordered his foreign minister to travel to Pakistan immediately to help the team’s evacuation and ensure the players were safe and secure.

Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said authorities did not believe the attack was carried out by Tamil Tiger rebels.