Shootout in Lahore

[Goughy]

Yup, been thinking that for a good while.

I wasnt going to respond to the original but as it is gaining momentum: God wasnt with the attackers as their plan failed?

Really? So using that logic, if it had been successful then it would have shown that God was on their side.

Wow, this is slippery territory that I dont really like.

They were not successful due to a recipe of mistakes, fortune, coincidence and actions by others. Bringing fate and faith into this scares me.

 

[four_or_six]

There was some terrorism expert on the radio suggesting that it was possible the intent was not mass murder of the players, but actually maximum disruption to Pakistan. The comment was that this was actually a very unusual attack as none of the terrorists were killed and all ran away.

 

[aussie]

Yup, been thinking that for a good while.

Just like the Hudson river miracle, the big man upstairs is talking to his people no doubt...

 

[haroon510]

There we go again

???

 

[Xuhaib]

There was some terrorism expert on the radio suggesting that it was possible the intent was not mass murder of the players, but actually maximum disruption to Pakistan. The comment was that this was actually a very unusual attack as none of the terrorists were killed and all ran away.

Thts because there was no commando type security for our Sri Lankan friends as it was originally promised by our incompetent government and the policemen were not even carrying proper weapons with themselves.

 

[Xuhaib]

I wasnt going to respond to the original but as it is gaining momentum: God wasnt with the attackers as their plan failed?

Really? So using that logic, if it had been successful then it would have shown that God was on their side.

Wow, this is slippery territory that I dont really like.

They were not successful due to a recipe of mistakes, fortune, coincidence and actions by others. Bringing fate and faith into this scares me.

Yup agreed its very simplistic thinking to say that God was with them or against them.

 

[four_or_six]

Thts because there was no commando type security for our Sri Lankan friends as it was originally promised by our incompetent government and the policemen were not even carrying proper weapons with themselves.

Yes, that does seem really shocking. I know what Chris Broad has said about the policemen going awol is quite tactless given the number who were killed, but surely those policemen have been let down too by being given a task that they weren't able to carry out and in the end losing their lives because of it.

 

[zaremba]

Stunning.

Cricinfo - 'I felt a bullet fizz past my ear'

Quite a story. He's a good writer, Sanga.

 

[Richard]

I wasnt going to respond to the original but as it is gaining momentum: God wasnt with the attackers as their plan failed?

Really? So using that logic, if it had been successful then it would have shown that God was on their side.

Wow, this is slippery territory that I dont really like.

They were not successful due to a recipe of mistakes, fortune, coincidence and actions by others. Bringing fate and faith into this scares me.

Eh? I simply said it's truly quite remarkable that none of the Lankan players, or officials, were killed. It appears to have taken an astonishingly unlikely sequence of events for that to come to pass.

If there is a God, I doubt he took a hand in saving a few Lankan cricketers TBH, given much worse has been "allowed" to happen.

I have absolutely zero belief in fate - the idea that some things are certain while others mould around it. It is a complete and total impossibility. Either everything is absolutely certain to the tiniest detail or nothing is. Where on Earth was I bringing faith into anything?

 

[Richard]

There was some terrorism expert on the radio suggesting that it was possible the intent was not mass murder of the players, but actually maximum disruption to Pakistan. The comment was that this was actually a very unusual attack as none of the terrorists were killed and all ran away.

I've wondered about that too. For precisely the reasons mentioned above - is it pure luck on the part of those who don't want people killed (ie, the infinitely large majority) that none of the Lankan party were hurt?

Some of the stuff that apparently was aimed to happen and didn't, though, suggests otherwise. It's virtually impossible to come as close to killing someone as apparently happened with Upul Tharanga and, by design, ensure it doesn't happen.

 

[four_or_six]

Apparently PCB is reporting Chris Broad to the ICC for his comments. I'm sad it's come to this kind of thing already. People from all countries should be pulling together, not bickering amongst themselves.

 

[Xuhaib]

Apparently PCB is reporting Chris Broad to the ICC for his comments. I'm sad it's come to this kind of thing already. People from all countries should be pulling together, not bickering amongst themselves.

Pakistan should be banned from Int cricket just on the basis of PCB's dire attitude and incompetent management.

 

[Goughy]

Where on Earth was I bringing faith into anything?

This

If there's a God, it's safe to say he's most certainly not on the side of the terrorists.

Yup, been thinking that for a good while.

 

[PhoenixFire]

I can't speak for Richard, but I think he might have been talking about 'god' in place of luck, not the 'literal' sense of the word.

 

[Richard]

This

You know, I considered excluding the last line of Uppercut's post in order to make abundantly clear what I meant - that was the one part of the post I was not responding to, and it's been interpreted as the only part I was responding to. Perhaps I should - in fact, I now will modify the quote part of it.

EDIT: replacement post below, after the interlude from Dale Brumby.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Apparently PCB is reporting Chris Broad to the ICC for his comments. I'm sad it's come to this kind of thing already. People from all countries should be pulling together, not bickering amongst themselves.

Jesus, how ****ed up is that? I doubt the PCB feel like they have much left to lose at this stage, but petty point scoring at a time when seven of their countrymen lie dead after this atrocity? Beggars belief.

 

[Richard]

I'm finding it almost impossible to believe they got out of there alive even now. A rocket missed, the bus was riddle with machine-gun fire from all sides, a grenade was thrown under the bus but failed to explode, and Tharanga has a bullet bounce off his chest.

Yup, been thinking that for a good while.

 

[Uppercut]

This

I'm responsible for that- it seems something has been picked up on that I paid little attention to writing. It's safe to say I completely agree with you, being as unreligious a person as you're ever likely to come across.

 

[Top_Cat]

imagine what if the terrorists' mission was to take the team hostage and kill them one by one... and imagine the number of days, nay weeks, they could've got on prime time tv all over the world negotiating for whatever nonsense they want holding a foreign sporting team to ransom... i really shudder to think the number of favors the world might have had to do in that case including releasing terrorists from prisons to save the innocent cricketers from getting getting killed. i am a non believer. so i just think the driver needs to be thanked for such a brilliant act of bravery that has saved the world from an even greater tragedy than what happened.

That might have been the plan, tbh. The explosives were probably just to incapacitate the bus, I reckon. Them trying to shoot the tyres out indicates as much too, the grenades just helping the process. They went for the protection (Police) first too and when the bus took off, it looked like they just tried to take out whoever they could before bailing.

The team bus driver has balls of solid granite, he was totally exposed and with bullets zinging around heads, the temptation to put one's head down and wish it all away would have been great. If there's justice in the world, he should never have to drive a bus ever again.

 

[Fusion]

Here's a story on the unfortunate second driver who was killed instantly by the terrorists.

Driver pays for love of cricket

Wednesday, 04 Mar, 2009 | 03:20 PM PST | —Reuters LAHORE:

Driver Zafar Khan was with the New Zealand cricket team in 2002 when a suicide bomber struck outside their hotel in Karachi.

On Wednesday Khan, 40, was buried after being shot dead by gunmen who attacked the Sri Lankan team in Lahore.

A driver of 15 years and cricket crazy like many of his countrymen, Khan had expected to go home to his village outside Mansehra town in North West Frontier province to finalise the dates for his eldest daughter’s wedding once the Lahore match was over.

Instead his body was taken there, after prayers were given for him and the six Pakistani policemen who also died in the bloody assault by a dozen as yet unidentified gunmen.

Khan was killed instantly by a gunshot wound to his chest as his coach came under heavy fire from terrorists 500 metres from the Gaddafi stadium, where he was taking the umpires for the third day of a match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

‘He loved his cricket and he was liked by visiting foreign players and officials,’ Saleem Khan, his younger brother, told Reuters after burying his sibling at the ancestral village in North West Frontier Province.

‘He loved collecting souvenirs given to him by them.’

His uncle, Anwar Khan, recalled his nephew’s shock when a suicide bomb attack outside Karachi’s Sheraton Hotel in May 2002 killed 11 French engineers and two Pakistanis.

Khan had been preparing to take the New Zealand team from the hotel to the National Stadium, but the New Zealanders promptly abandoned the series and returned home the same day.

‘He was shattered then, but recovered quickly as he loved driving and cricket,’ Anwar said.

While Khan was being buried, one of his passengers lay in a Lahore hospital on the critical list.

Fourth umpire Ahsan Raza was also struck in the chest. He was kept alive by an artificial ventilator as his lungs were damaged and he had suffered internal bleeding.

Another Pakistani official on the bus was wounded, but others escaped without serious injury, although the vehicle was sprayed with bullets as it stood stationary in the middle of a gunfight for several minutes before being driven to safety.

‘Zafar was killed instantly as he was up front. A police commando took charge of the coach and drove us to the stadium,’ Umpire Nadeem Ghouri said.

Others on the bus included Australian umpires Simon Taufel and Steve Davis, and British match referee Chris Broad.