Pak Interior Minister rules out India’s role in Lahore

Pakistani investigators have identified the terrorists behind the attack on the Sri lankan cricket team,Punjab Governor Salman Taseer said but did not name any of the suspects.

“We have identified the people who have carried out the attack. We are after them,” Taseer said adding the Army and the intelligence agency,ISI,are helping in tracking down the gunmen.

Taseer said the investigators have found a large amount of weapons. “It was like a small army”.

About a dozen gunmen ambushed the bus ferrying the Sri Lankan team to the Gaddafi stadium on Tuesday,leaving seven players and an assistant coach injured and eight people dead.

The gunmen fled after the attack.

The Governor said he did not want to share details as a high-level committee has been constituted to go into the attacks and submit its report within three days.

Investigators questioned five suspects who are believed to have helped the terrorists. The suspects claimed that the attackers had stayed in the city for a month before striking.

They are also trying to trace persons whose telephone numbers were found on the SIM cards of the mobile left behind by the terrorists.

One of the suspects,a resident of Rehmanpura,had a photograph of one of the attackers,the Dawn newspaper said quoting sources.

Babar Shahzad,who had reportedly purchased one of the SIMs used by the attackers,and Dilawar Hussain,a teenager,were picked up from a village at Rahim Yar Khan in southern Punjab. The three other suspects were detained in Lahore.

Faced with all round criticism for the lax security,the Punjab Governor sought to put a brave front,saying the security for the Sri Lankan team was adequate and that all standard procedures had been followed.

Asked about match referee Chris Broad’s comments that they were left with no security when the terrorists started firing and were sitting ducks,Taseer said it is unfortunate that he has made such comments.

The Governor also attacked Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram for describing Pakistani security as hopeless.

“In Mumbai,for six hours,nobody came and the terrorists left many dead. Our security personnel kept fighting till the end.”

CCTV footage aired by television channels on Wednesday showed about half a dozen attackers calmly leaving the site of the assault on foot or on a motorcycle.

Aslam,an auto-rickshaw driver whose vehicle was used by two of the attackers,told police that the men with fair complexion were speaking in Punjabi. They dropped two bags with clothes,detonators and walkie-talkies after getting out of the auto-rickshaw in Lahore’s cantonment area.

Toor Agha,the former owner of a white car used by the attackers,was handed over by police to an intelligence agency. The car was found at the Liberty roundabout with timed explosive devices. Agha told investigators he had sold the car some time ago.

The food items found in bags left behind by the attackers indicated they might have planned to take the Sri Lankan team hostage or engage in a prolonged stand-off with security forces,police said.

“Raids are being conducted. There are some leads which we are following and were are trying our best to unearth the conspiracy,” Lahore police chief Habibur Rehman said.

The video footage on Pakistani channels showing the terrorists ambling down a bylane has surpprised the investigators. “Obviously,they were well trained. If they had run,they would have attracted attention,” the Governor said.

The terrorists were armed with automatic weapons,grenades and a rocket launcher.

Meanwhile,Pakistanis queued up to pay tributes to the policemen who died in the attack at the Liberty Chowk.

A special memorial was organised by the city traffic police.