Pakistani police are investigating the possibility of a link between an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team and the Mumbai terror attacks.
Authorities are considering the possibility that a banned group blamed for orchestrating last year's terror attack in India's financial capital could have been behind Tuesday's attack in Lahore that left eight Pakistanis, including six policemen, dead.
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants may have intended to hijack the bus carrying the team to bargain the release of their chief operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, who was arrested in connection with the Mumbai rampage, a Pakistani daily reported Thursday citing police sources.
Police say they have obtained new evidence that suggests the LeT wanted to trade hostages, releasing the sportsmen on the condition that the commander and a another five detained members were allowed safe passage to tribal areas along the troubled border with Afghanistan The News International, report said.
The Prime Minister's Adviser on interior affairs Rehman Malik told the Associated Press on Wednesday that the preparations made by the Lahore attackers pointed strongly to a hijacking plot. The aide did not elaborate on the identity of the attackers.
Retired General Hameed Gul, a former chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), however, said he believed that the firing on the Sri Lankan team was an Indian conspiracy in line with New Delhi's plans to suggest that Pakistan was a terrorist state.
No comments:
Post a Comment