Shootout in Lahore

[godofcricket]

For months the Pakistan Cricket Board has claimed that visiting teams would be given the kind of security cover reserved for heads of state. This was clearly not the case in Lahore. The convoy should have been more heavily fortified and policemen posted every 50 yards or so all along the route, and that too from early morning. In that scenario, the assailants who so easily took up positions in the area would have either had to take on the policemen on duty, which would have alerted the teams while they were still at their hotel, or done nothing at all. The local superintendent of police in charge of VVIP security has apparently taken the plea that he was new to the job and did not know what measures to take. If true, this is a shameful stance to take.
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The news was very very shocking, I was about to drive through gulberg a couple of hours after the incident took place. You just cant do anything but feel embarrassed, Pakistan wont be hosting teams for the next 5 years or so, I can say this because the security level wont improve unless Pakistan changes some policies which I seriously cant see happening in the near future with this government. If you read some of my previous posts, in the last few months regarding the situation in Pakistan, I always backed teams who didn’t want to tour pakistan for the simple reason that Pakistan government is loosing control over security throughout the country so whatever guarantee they were giving was laughable.

All that talk of president level security is bull****, people don’t know this but let me tell you that some police officers were carrying fake guns, thats why they ran towards the bus rather than shoot the terrorists. Forget president level security I have seen the security given to medium level ministers is way better than the security provided to these players. Same thing happened when England toured, at the beginning of the tour the security was pretty good, as the tour progressed you saw one police car travelling with the bus, thankfully nothing happened then and nothing serious happened to any player now, if the PCB promises something they have to keep that promise, now they look like bunch of idiots.

 

[Debris]

One thing I did pick up from Simon Taufel's news conference is that the Pakistani team bus left 5 minutes after everyone else on this day which hadn't happened on the first two days. Was this true?

I don't think that there is any particular conspiracy here but what it would have meant, I assume, is that the security forces would have to be split between the two convoys. This might be one explanation as to why the security seemed so inadequate.

 

[Top_Cat]

All that talk of president level security is bull****, people don’t know this but let me tell you that some police officers were carrying fake guns, thats why they ran towards the bus rather than shoot the terrorists. Forget president level security I have seen the security given to medium level ministers is way better than the security provided to these players. Same thing happened when England toured, at the beginning of the tour the security was pretty good, as the tour progressed you saw one police car travelling with the bus, thankfully nothing happened then and nothing serious happened to any player now, if the PCB promises something they have to keep that promise, now they look like bunch of idiots.

Are you sure? That's huge if so.

 

[SJS]

Seems Fus is saying basically the same thing as the chap\girl who SJS quotes here:

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I havent quoted a 'chap/girl'. It is an editorial in The Dawn, Pakistan's most respected English daily !

 

[Burgey]

Are you sure? That's huge if so.

Yeah.

Especially as the other guys weren't.

Also, whilt I sit here safely and agree that maybe we shouldn't be jumping the, well you know, and lambasting the police, that's all well and good for me to say.

I can perfectly understand someone in Broad/ Taufel et al's position being pissed off and looking to blame someone. It's a normal human reaction to this sort of thing.

 

[Sanz]

Your opinion/comment is worthless to me because as usual you completely ignore what I actually wrote and misinterpret it to advance your bigoted agenda. Here are the first four sentences of my post:
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So what is it that Broad said that you disagree with ? Have you ever listened to what he has actually said ? Just incase you didn't, here it is. Please do watch it and tell me what is it that he said is to utterly out of order that he deserves to be called a Liar by your Board.

YouTube - chris broad blames pakistan security for total failure during lahore attack

"..When we were in the van we were not aware what was going on outside...after the incident we were able to see television pictures you can quite clearly see the white van we were in the next to the ambulance the white ambulance..in the middle of this round about terrorists shooting past our van sometimes in to our van and not a sign of policeman anywhere..they had clearly gone, left the scene and left us to be sitting ducks. So I am extremely angry that we were promised high level security and in our hour of need the security vanished..."

He is not the only one who is saying that, SL players, Aussie Umpires and almost everyone that was in the neighborhood has pretty much same thing to say...but you my living 1000s of miles from the scene disagree with Braod and perhaps all others who are saying the same thing and when I question your statement where you seemed to have day dreamed about a fierce fire fight between police and terrorists in some TV footage, and yet you call me a bigot.

Lastly, I have no agenda against any country or citizen of any country, I only have anger towards certain people who continue to live in their lala land.

 

[As if]

One thing I did pick up from Simon Taufel's news conference is that the Pakistani team bus left 5 minutes after everyone else on this day which hadn't happened on the first two days. Was this true?

You've got to see it to believe it. It seems the authorites were pre-warned about a possible attack. My guess is that's the reason for the delay, they held their own lot back fearing what might happen and sent everyone else on their merry way regardless. Having being warned about a possible attack the level of security wasn't just shameful, it was tantamount to manslaughter!

'Lahore police conceded they had been warned of a possible attack.' Read it and weep...

'Security shameful' - Murali

 

[jeevan]

Were there? Where?

I suspect someone is talking out of the wrong hole.

That came from the SP of Lahore police BTW

24 Elite Force officers (who Musharraf has referred to as police commandoes)
15 other police officers.
Six police vehicles total.

Adds up to 39 police personnel detailed to the convoy.

 

[Top_Cat]

That came from the SP of Lahore police BTW

24 Elite Force officers (who Musharraf has referred to as police commandoes)
15 other police officers.
Six police vehicles total.

Adds up to 39 police personnel detailed to the convoy.

So 24 special ops guys couldn't even injured let alone take out 6 bad guys? Don't buy it. Someone's lying.

 

[jeevan]

Elite police picture.

I wish the Mumbai police had packed that sort of heat on 11/26. One of them poor guys was engaging the assault rifle carrying terrorists with a 0.303 bolt action rifle circa WWII. Another with a service revolver.

 

[alternative]

Absolutely agree with TC. That much special forces as they claim it and not one terrorist got injured/killed.

 

[roseboy64]

Maybe most of them were with the Pakistan team.

 

[jeevan]

Maybe most of them were with the Pakistan team.

Some more details

Police were indeed split. 27 with the SL team bus and 16 with the Pakistani team bus. This is a separate source.

Also, 2 police stations, 3 kiosks near site

 

[Fusion]

So what is it that Broad said that you disagree with ? Have you ever listened to what he has actually said ? Just incase you didn't, here it is. Please do watch it and tell me what is it that he said is to utterly out of order that he deserves to be called a Liar by your Board.

YouTube - chris broad blames pakistan security for total failure during lahore attack

"..When we were in the van we were not aware what was going on outside...after the incident we were able to see television pictures you can quite clearly see the white van we were in the next to the ambulance the white ambulance..in the middle of this round about terrorists shooting past our van sometimes in to our van and not a sign of policeman anywhere..they had clearly gone, left the scene and left us to be sitting ducks. So I am extremely angry that we were promised high level security and in our hour of need the security vanished..."

He is not the only one who is saying that, SL players, Aussie Umpires and almost everyone that was in the neighborhood has pretty much same thing to say...but you my living 1000s of miles from the scene disagree with Braod and perhaps all others who are saying the same thing and when I question your statement where you seemed to have day dreamed about a fierce fire fight between police and terrorists in some TV footage, and yet you call me a bigot.

Lastly, I have no agenda against any country or citizen of any country, I only have anger towards certain people who continue to live in their lala land.

You continue to make it sound like as if I am defending the security! How can I emphasize to you that I think the security provided to the team was UTTER CRAP? What I am pointing out is that 6 Pakistani policeman died. So to accuse all of them of abandoning and running away like cowards is unfair. Let me ask you a question. If, like you apparently believe, the terrorist encountered NO RESISTANCE at all, then why was no one killed? I mean if every policeman ran away, the terrorist could've simply walked into the van and killed them all right? I am amazed that I am even having this debate with you after proclaiming that I feel embrassed and disgusted by the level of security provided to the team and officials. As I'm sure you'll again ignore the context of my post, let me end by once again saying THE SECURITY PROVIDED SUCKED and the PCB/Gorvernment of Pakistan needs to be held responsible for their failures.

 

[Evermind]

It's pretty unbelievable that Butt is now reporting Broad - a man who was gracious enough to go to Pakistan amidst all the security fears and ended up getting shot at and narrowly escaping death - for "lying". Never mind that his testimony has been corroborated by just about everyone else. Wow. Is it possible for the PCB to stoop any lower? How shameless can people be?

In the end, the people who lose their lives are the poorly armed policemen, probably some poor folk from the villages who were basically sitting ducks.

The whole thing does stink of conspiracy though. Why was the Pak bus "coincidentally" 5 minutes late? How did the police know of the attack beforehand?

 

[Xuhaib]

It's pretty unbelievable that Butt is now reporting Broad - a man who was gracious enough to go to Pakistan amidst all the security fears and ended up getting shot at and narrowly escaping death - for "lying". Never mind that his testimony has been corroborated by just about everyone else. Wow. Is it possible for the PCB to stoop any lower? How shameless can people be?

In the end, the people who lose their lives are the poorly armed policemen, probably some poor folk from the villages who were basically sitting ducks.

The whole thing does stink of conspiracy though. Why was the Pak bus "coincidentally" 5 minutes late? How did the police know of the attack beforehand?

Karachi, Mar 5 (PTI) Pakistan's coach Intikhab Alam had noted that the security plan for the two teams were not being followed properly during the Test match in Lahore against Sri Lanka, sources said today.
Sources in the Pakistan team said Intikhab had not been satisfied with some aspects of the security plan for both teams.

"Intikhab specifically asked the police officials to ensure the same routes were not repeated while taking teams from the hotel to the stadium and vice versa," one source said.

He said Intikhab had noted that the same route was used for two successive days which was not advisable according to security experts.

The Pakistan team avoided coming under attack from the terrorists because captain Younis Khan had decided that the Pakistan team bus would leave five minutes after the Sri Lankans from the hotel for the stadium.

Some of the Pakistan players said Younis had only taken this decision to leave late by five minutes for the third day's play as Pakistan was batting after having fielded for two days.
"Normally the team that is fielding leaves early for the ground so that its players can limber up for the day's play," one player said. PTI

Pak coach was concerned about lax security: sources

So what next even Younis Khan was involved in this conspiracy ?

 

[bagapath]

Karachi, Mar 5 (PTI) Pakistan's coach Intikhab Alam had noted that the security plan for the two teams were not being followed properly during the Test match in Lahore against Sri Lanka, sources said today.
Sources in the Pakistan team said Intikhab had not been satisfied with some aspects of the security plan for both teams.

"Intikhab specifically asked the police officials to ensure the same routes were not repeated while taking teams from the hotel to the stadium and vice versa," one source said.

He said Intikhab had noted that the same route was used for two successive days which was not advisable according to security experts.

i know the security has failed so everyone is throwing stones at them. but who the hell is intikhab to tell the security guys how to go about doing things? this sort of behavior from civilians, who are supposed to shut up and listen to the cops in choosing the routes and following security procedures, is the reason for screwups. intikhab wasnt even good at cricket, what he is paid for, and he has the audacity to tell the cops to choose a different route each day. what the hell does he know about counter terrorism security? i really pity pakistanis if they have endure such crap from high handed individuals who can tell the uniformed people how to do their job. no wonder systems fail in such situations.

 

[pup11]

You continue to make it sound like as if I am defending the security! How can I emphasize to you that I think the security provided to the team was UTTER CRAP? What I am pointing out is that 6 Pakistani policeman died. So to accuse all of them of abandoning and running away like cowards is unfair. Let me ask you a question. If, like you apparently believe, the terrorist encountered NO RESISTANCE at all, then why was no one killed? I mean if every policeman ran away, the terrorist could've simply walked into the van and killed them all right? I am amazed that I am even having this debate with you after proclaiming that I feel embrassed and disgusted by the level of security provided to the team and officials. As I'm sure you'll again ignore the context of my post, let me end by once again saying THE SECURITY PROVIDED SUCKED and the PCB/Gorvernment of Pakistan needs to be held responsible for their failures.

I agree with this, its poor form to accuse all the policemen involved in this incidents as cowards, some of them might have ran away, to save themselves when this shooting started, because lets be honest, with their skill level and artillery provided to them, they were never going to be a match for the terrorists, who were armed with AK-47's, rocket-launchers and grenades.

The thing is they should never have been there in the first place, special ops commandos should have been there as security to the team, but on the contrary just to have local police as the security for the both the teams and officials, and that too when the situation in Pakistan is as bad as it is, just shows how serious PCB are about player security and their safety.

IMO, people like Murali and Broad too should think twice before criticising the police officers here, I know they would be badly shaken up after this incident, but they shouldn't forget, that its because of the bravery of the local policemen, that all of them are still alive, the blame solely lies with the PCB, had they had better security plans and people at work, then maybe a situation like this could have been avoided all together.

 

[Xuhaib]

You continue to make it sound like as if I am defending the security! How can I emphasize to you that I think the security provided to the team was UTTER CRAP? What I am pointing out is that 6 Pakistani policeman died. So to accuse all of them of abandoning and running away like cowards is unfair. Let me ask you a question. If, like you apparently believe, the terrorist encountered NO RESISTANCE at all, then why was no one killed? I mean if every policeman ran away, the terrorist could've simply walked into the van and killed them all right? I am amazed that I am even having this debate with you after proclaiming that I feel embrassed and disgusted by the level of security provided to the team and officials. As I'm sure you'll again ignore the context of my post, let me end by once again saying THE SECURITY PROVIDED SUCKED and the PCB/Gorvernment of Pakistan needs to be held responsible for their failures.

Fusion,

Watch this video and make your own judgement to me it seems there was no resistance all.
3 News > Video > World > ICC referee says Pakistan security forces failed players

We ****ed up big time, and Butt should admit it. He has no right to act like a shameless prick.

 

[Craig]

Ijaz Butt should give himself an uppercut. Maybe instead of being in his ivory tower, he should get his arse down there and put himself in that same situation, so next time he will keep his mouth shut. Deadset Mr Butt is a clown.