High Court Judge Reveals Pakistan Polices Failure To Deal With Lahore Attack
Shabbar Raza Rizvi, a Lahore High Court judge has criticized the Pakistan police for not performing their duties effectively. He was of course referring to the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team on 3rd March 2009. He said that he believed that the senior officers of the Pakistan police had failed to perform their duties properly, the result of which was the injury of about seven members of the Sri Lankan team, death of half a dozen policemen and the ban of International cricket in Pakistan.
Rizvi identified more than a dozen senior policemen who he thought were guilty of incompetence and neglection of duty. He is compiling a report, which he will submit to the International Cricket Council later this month.
The Sri Lankan team was on its way to Gaddafi Stadium for the third day of second Test against Pakistan when the terrorists attacked. Eight people, including local policemen were killed and seven Sri Lankan players including the coach suffered injuries. The bus driver and other officials were also injured, and the Sri Lankan team was considered to be lucky to have survived with only injuries.
However, questions arose as to the security situation in Pakistan. There seemed to be a glaring hole in the so called security arrangements promised by the Pakistan Cricket Board, backed by the Pakistan government. Since the incident of 3rd http://www.senore.com/Cricket/March-c74391 2009, there has been no international cricket in Pakistan, with the Pakistan team being forced to have home games at different neutral venues.
Rizvi mentioned in his report how Haji Habibur Rehman, the senior police officer who was in charge of the overall security of the Sri Lankan team, was nowhere to be found when the attack took place. “I wish I had seen him marching on the road ... or at least sitting in his office before 8am. Unfortunately, he only became visible and audible after the occurrence had taken place.” Rizvi wrote.
Rizvi also mentioned the inefficiencies of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Amjad-Javed-c44094 Saleemi, the Deputy Inspector General and criticized him of “dereliction of duty”. Saleemi had admitted after the incident that he was not sure if the police officers present in the area at the time of the attack were even on duty. Rizvi wrote about him, “Obviously he (Saleemi) would have only known, if he himself were there. He made contradictory statements before me and did not have moral courage to state the truth.”
Rizvi revealed Superintendent Mohammad Abid’s shortcomings; Abid was in charge of the snipers who were positioned on the building tops to protect the Sri Lankan team in case of any such incident, but when the attack took place, the snipers were not in position. “He had the direct responsibility, and placement of snipers on high-rise buildings is an area of his jurisdiction. He miserably failed to do that and was absent from duty when the occurrence took place.” Rizvi wrote.
It has been more than a year since the terrible incident, but the PCB has failed to submit the official incident report. The PCB claims they have prepared the incident report, because of the nature of the report; they are just waiting for the permission of the government to finally submit it to the ICC. It is believed that the sooner the report is submitted, the sooner international matches can resume in Pakistan. The ICC claimed they would send a “hand-picked” side for a tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755, but no timeline was given because of the failure to submit the report.
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