// TREND, HOWEVER

In the attack on Sri Lankan athletes who arrived in Pakistan last week in Lahore, experts saw many analogies with the terrorist attack on the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) in November 2008.

Last Monday, members of the Sri Lankan cricket team, who had arrived for a series of matches with the Pakistan national team, were attacked in Lahore. The terrorist attack was carried out with extraordinary audacity, even for a country accustomed to terrorist attacks.

Twelve masked terrorists, armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, grenade launchers and hand grenades, attacked a convoy consisting of a bus, several police cars and a minibus with a referee crew on the way to the stadium. Perhaps the most important square in the city, Freedom Square, was chosen as the location of the attack. The Lahore bureau of the Aaj TV channel is located here, which made it possible to broadcast live the entire terrorist operation: the attack took place literally under the TV crew’s windows. According to the police, the maximum program of the terrorists was the capture or murder of Sri Lankan athletes. This was avoided, as Pakistani media now say, thanks to the courage of the bus driver. Under heavy fire, he managed to take the bus out of the attack zone and bring the athletes to the stadium. Soon after this, the terrorists fled. Moreover, the manner in which they left Freedom Square was more reminiscent of an organized retreat than an escape. The terrorists left most of their equipment at the crime scene.

The result of the shootout, which lasted about half an hour, was six killed (all Pakistani police officers), eight wounded (seven Sri Lankan athletes and a British assistant coach of the national team).

Experts immediately noted the similarities between the attacks on the Sri Lankan team and the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) in November last year. Despite the fact that the terrorists apparently did not achieve their main goal, the terrorist attack dealt the Pakistani authorities a blow comparable to what the Indian authorities received last year. Pakistan, where cricket is as beloved a sport as, say, football in Italy, has not been able to host foreign teams for several years. Some, like the Australians and South Africans, refused to come for security reasons, others, like the Indians, for political reasons. Therefore, when inviting the Sri Lankan team (one of the best in the world), the Pakistani authorities promised to take maximum security measures. In the end, it turned out that these “maximum” funds were reduced to the provision of two jeeps with police protection. Careful planning, calculation for maximum resonance, serious military training of terrorists who staged an attack in broad daylight in perhaps the most prestigious area of one of the largest cities in the country - analogies that were impossible not to notice. Pakistani authorities say they are continuing to search for the "unknown persons" who carried out the shooting in Lahore. Experts believe that terrorists can be considered unknown only with a reservation - one can agree with the term “unknown” only as long as it means that the authorities do not know the names of the participants in the terrorist attack. The people who carried out the attack on the cricket team became known last fall when they organized an attack on Mumbai.

The terrorists changed the scenery