Terrorism in Pakistan

[DMB]

What does anyone think about the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team? I feel totally confused after reading a number of accounts. The team were promised a "presidential" level of security. It is true that they had some police with them, but the policemen who were slaughtered by the gunmen were apparently unarmed. There apparently were some armed police as well, but they didn't succeed in hitting a single gunman and nor did they even chase them. Chris Broad, the match referee, suggested that many of the police melted away at the fatal roundabout. People seem to have survived as a result of individual acts of heroism rather than any sort of competent response.

It seems very likely that this attack was carried out by the same lot, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, who are believed to be behind the awful attacks in Mumbai. Nothing effective seems to be done in Pakistan to stop them. And now the Pakistani Government has given up trying to govern in the Northwest Frontier region and has passed control to the Taleban.

Given the history of past cooperation between the Pakistani security services and the Taleban, I do wonder if the attack on the cricket team was planned with inside help.

[Uthgar the Brazen]

Given the history of past cooperation between the Pakistani security services and the Taleban, I do wonder if the attack on the cricket team was planned with inside help.

When I first heard accounts of the police disappearing quickly, that was my first thought. Nothing I've read since has done anything to lessen that suspicion.

[DMB]

An interesting analysis here. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5864842.ece)
“Zardari may wish to be rid of the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, the LeT and other affiliated terrorist groups, but he cannot afford to be seen to cave in to western and Indian pressure”, said MJ Gohel, director of the Asia Pacific Foundation. “The terrorist infrastructure is being allowed to continue functioning with only cosmetic restrictions, whose main function is to impress the US. Yet until firm action is taken and training camps are closed down, the slow collapse of the Pakistani state will continue.”

In less than a year Zardari has lost control of much of the North West Frontier Province to the Pakistani Taliban. Militant groups have been openly fundraising, advertising in newspapers and collecting funds at government mosques.

A failing Pakistan is a worry for Britain, with its large Pakistani population. According to David Miliband, the foreign secretary, 70% of the terrorist plots being investigated in Britain can be traced back to Pakistan. Miliband urged Zardari and Sharif to unite.

It is widely acknowledged that a reform of the ISI to sift out Taliban sympathisers is crucial but nobody knows how to do that without destabilising the Zardari government.

Counter-terrorism training has been offered and economic aid will be quadrupled, with much of the money to be spent on education in the hope that there will be less preaching of hatred towards the West.

If nothing works, America could be confronted with the nightmare of a nuclear-armed and fragmented Pakistan in the hands of Islamic radicals.

What is going to happen?

[Mung Dynasty]

Ok, question: what would be the motive for the ISI and/or the Pakistani government to get involved in a terrorist attack on a Sri Lankan cricket team? I understand why the Taliban and people like them would want to do it (they'll kill anyone, anytime) but I can't see any political or strategic advantage in others getting involved.

[DMB]

I don't for a moment think it's anything to do with the Government. But there are elements within the ISI that are in bed with the Taleban. Their agenda is not that of the Government or of the secular, cricket-loving majority.

[LoneWolf]

Until I have seen more evidence I will lean more toward incompetence than malice on the part of the police who didn't do their jobs. One thing is for certain: international cricket is dead there now.