Murali suggests it was an inside job

http://www.cricket.com.au/default.aspx?s=news-display&id=15648

Muttiah Muralitharan has questioned whether the terrorists who fired at Sri Lanka's team bus on Tuesday had inside information.

Muralitharan, the all-time leading Test wicket-taker, was unhurt as gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan bus as it made its way to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore for the third day of the second Test against Pakistan.

But local umpire Ahsan Raza was taken to hospital after being hit by a bullet in his stomach while seven Sri Lanka players were injured and six policemen were killed.

Match referee Chris Broad, who was caught up in the incident in a separate bus along with Raza and the rest of the match officials, on Wednesday voiced his anger at the Pakistani security forces.

And Muralitharan echoed those sentiments, questioning why the players were not better protected.

"Somehow in this incident there were no police with guns on the bus," the 36-year-old off-spinner told Radio 5AA.

"If someone was there with a gun we would have had a chance of defending ourselves."

"Normally all the buses go and we have four or five escorts."

"We left at 8.30am, and Younus Khan (with the Pakistan team) at 8.35am."

"We divided into two, maybe they knew the information for the right time. They tried to shoot the driver. Then they were shooting both sides of the bus and they counted 39 holes."

Muralitharan revealed he had thought Tharanga Paranavitana, who along with Thilan Samaraweera was one of the more seriously wounded players, would die from his injuries.

"There were gun shots going on and the bullets were passing us," Muralitharan said.

"I saw Paranavitana was bleeding in the chest. I thought he was gone, actually."

"Thilan Samaraweera was bleeding, Kumar Sangakkara was bleeding from the shoulder. There was blood everywhere. It was frightening."

Something about it all does seem a bit strange. If that was Presidential style security then God help the President.

Especially if he is right that there were no armed police around. WTF?

heard oz ump davis this am, being interviewed at the airport...he was cross that the security guys disappeared..their driver had been killed and their minivan was just left there for target practice

It does seem strange that 12 gunmen were able to carry out this carnage and get away without a mark on them. But then if they had it so "easy" I can't work out why there wasn't more serious casualties amongst the targets - Broad's bus was apparently unguarded and unmoved thoughout the event so should have been an easy target

There's been a suggestion that the aim was to kill the drivers, and take the players and umpires as hostages.

Henry wrote:There's been a suggestion that the aim was to kill the drivers, and take the players and umpires as hostages.

It's all a bit "24".

A few random thoughts about Chris Broad's interview on TV: firstly, he's some kind of hero for shielding the body of his driver.

Now comes the difficult bit: he has lambasted the absence of ther Pakistani police while the attack was going on. Ok, but five of them were killed. Secondly, how reliable is his account that the police just melted away, bearing in mind that he is protecting someone from injury and presumably not poking his head up above the parapet to see what's going on?

There are so many undercurrents in Pakistani society that hardly any such act reaches a conclusion. Benazir's assassination sill unresolved. Zia-Ul-Haq's plane crash death, unresolved. They are only two examples. Pakistani history is riddled with such high profile killings and attacks that never get answered.

Sad times.

Can expect extra long queues at Lords trying to enter the ground now...

Guess all teams will get armed police too

March 3rd 2009: The Loss of Innocence

with all the other stuff going on its easy to underestimate that 6 policemen died and others kept the terrorists occupied while the bus driver also did an EXCELLENT job.


...having said that its AMAZING how all 12-14 of them were able to escape with out ANY one getting killed.

Maybe the 6 cops killed were the ones who weren't in on the job.

The Beeb showed footage of the killers "fleeing" the site - one of them broke into a trot, the other just ambled out away - The. Sheer. Bloody. Arrogance.

G.Wood wrote:It does seem strange that 12 gunmen were able to carry out this carnage and get away without a mark on them. But then if they had it so "easy" I can't work out why there wasn't more serious casualties amongst the targets - Broad's bus was apparently unguarded and unmoved thoughout the event so should have been an easy target

In Mumbai, in a similar kind of situation hostages who were taken were killed brutally. They could have easily killed Broad, and if he was in Mumbai he would have been killed.

Coupled to that is how the forensics in this case were handled so casually.