A group of young, well-trained and motivated men armed to the teeth with automatic rifles, grenades, grenade or rocket launchers, powerful bombs, backpacks filled with magazines of bullets, knives and dry fruit invade the urban landscape and unleash a wave of terror.

They shoot indiscriminately, throw grenades at targets or explode bombs as they hit the ground running. They are extremely fit and agile enough to jump walls, scale buildings, and capable of taking hostages for days on end. If they can sneak away, afterwards, just as well. If not, death holds no fear.

Mumbai, Kabul and now Lahore have in the last three months been witness to what seems to be a new guerrilla terror strategy being adapted by Islamist groups to attack urban centres, take security agencies by surprise and spill as much blood as possible at a time and place that invites maximum media attention.

The Lahore attacks were eerily similar to the carnage in Mumbai last November. A group of 12 young men arrived on foot (or in a CNG-powered autorickshaw-style luggage carrier, according to some reports) and in classic military style ambushed the team bus near a traffic island circle.

They fired at the tyres first and then the bus. They exploded two bombs and threw grenades. A firefight ensued as they were challenged by the players’ commando escorts. The attackers can be seen firing back calmly and running across a roadside lawn — just like the 26/11 attackers, who hit Café Leopold in Colaba first and used a lane next door to reach the Taj Mahal Hotel even as they continued shooting at random.

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