Pakistan terrorist attack - Discrepancies ?

On the 3^rd of March 2009, the Sri Lankan cricketers had a miraculous escape after the bus they were travelling in en route to the Gadafi stadium in Pakistan was targeted by armed terrorists.  They were surrounded, the policemen killed and bullets rained on their bus. Half a dozen of them sustained shrapnel injuries, a couple suffered non- critical bullet injuries. Yet, they all survived luckily.

Riiiiiiiiiiight.And there are golden flying pigs in my backyard playing ice hockey with unicorns.

Do you mind if I just point out certain queries regarding this terrorist attack ? I’ll try to go in chronological order so that I don’t miss anything.Let’s start with an anonymous phone call the team’s security received that morning warning of a possible attack. It prompted the change in the route to the stadium. Noone verified the authenticity of the call, they admitted later ( pretty big admission that ).

God rest their souls, 6 policemen lost their lives in the initial skirmishes as the bus was surrounded. Being bedridden ( sofa-ridden actually ), I could watch the reports as they emerged in live time. The initial news was that 10-12 masked terrorists had attacked the vehicles with bullets, grenades and  rocket launchers. In the footage shown on Tv via CCTV, you can see them waltzing around in the open roads with their weapons in broad daylight. The latest footage shown as of yesterday night shows them nonchalantly walking away from the scene and getting into motorbikes and driving off, ‘mindful of the speed limit’ by the looks of it.

Wait a minute. 6 policemen ? You knew they were going to be attacked and you assigned a handful of policemen to defend these people who had been promised security equivalent to that of the President ? What were you expecting , Al Qaeda ninjas  ?

I’m not really convinced of the bench strength of the police that day in that scenario simply because every indication and revelation clearly shows that the terrorists weren’t in a hurry. They were ambling along, they had all the time in the world. A terrorist threw a grenade at the bus from right in front of it, which didn’t explode... you think he forgot to pull the pin ? 

The incident lasted 25 minutes, I believe, right ? Yet, with these guys in no hurry, with no real threat to their lives, with the bus surrounded and their bags filled with grenades and rocket launchers... they didn’t kill the cricketers. They had all the time in the world and they just walked away after having the victims at their mercy. After 25 minutes of firing, they could only hit the windows of the bus.. what did the reports say , 10 –  12 bullet marks on the bus ? Gee, that’s one bullet every 2 minutes using Kaleshnikovs and AK- 47s. What kind of Alzheimer patient terrorists were these, man ?

And the getaway. Ok, you calmly walk away from the scene of the crime without completing it. I get that. But you dump all your weapons there itself in the open ? Why ? You weren’t being chased actively. So what gives ? You wanted them found, didn’t you ?

Oh. And it’s just priceless that within half an hour of the incident, there were sketches of the terrorists available to the cops. Gee, sketches of masked men, that should be helpful. What’ya got, Captain ? Beady eyes, pointy nose protruding from big shawl and the hint of a beard flowing out of the bottom of that shawl ? Great, let’s round up the suspects. You go arrest every adolescent male in Islamabad, I’ll get Rawalpindi.

I don’t know how many of you were watching when it occurred live, but in the first few hours a news channel talked live with Javed Miandad. They started on the usual ‘how will this affect cricket in Pakistan’ but then moved in on his kid’s in-laws. You know. Dawood. Man, did he get agitated. He refused to speak on the topic even though the news reporter was pretty persistant ( I admire her for that ). The fact is – it’s a logical conclusion.

Cricket – Dawood - terrorism. You can’t avoid not drawing that conclusion whether it’s true or not.

As of now, noone’s owned up to the act. Talks of Indian hand and even LTTE are now coming out to add tar to the gravy. Who’s behind this – too many choices, really, if you ask me. There are too many discrepancies in the story playing out in front of me. My belief ?

It was planned ( duh ). A section of the police knew what was coming. The route was intentionally changed, security was not beefed up, the terrorists got their chance and took it. They did their duty to perfection – shoot and terrorise. If anyone died by a stray bullet, so be it. But, and I really believe this, THEY WERE NEVER GOING TO KILL THE SRI LANKANS. They had too many opportunities to do that. They chose to walk away from a bus after dropping their rocket launchers and grenades. ( It would take a major mujra-Mardi Gras collaboration for me to do that if I were the terrorist and I haven’t heard of any such collaboration till date. ) Their orders were to create mayhem, BUT NOT KILL.

My heart goes out to the Lankans. Much as I resent them for screwing us on the field, I admire their courage in both visiting this land at this time and also their restraint in how they reacted to the situation. I regret the lives lost by policemen who tried their best to save their nation’s pride. I applaud the driver who, by retaining his foot on the pedal, chose to somehow get the team to safety whether it cost him his own life.

But it’s over. This is GAME OVER for Pakistan, in every front. You've been clean bowled, mate. There isn’t gonna be any way to come out of this unscathed. People are walking the streets with rocket launchers like it’s a damn video game, you’ve ceded land to the Taliban, for crying out loud, international concensus is turning against you like never before and a coup is imminent. Nobody trusts you with their lives, whether it be foreign diplomats or your own men. Way to go, guys.

Of course, I know, you’ll make it hard on us Indians too on your way down. After all, in your eyes, we’re the cause of everything from terrorism to syphilis, right ? Then again, who knows maybe ‘another miracle’ will happen and you’ll decide to drop arms altogether and actually talk meaningful dialogues with each other and all your neighbours. Maybe there’ll actually be peace in your land someday decades from now.

And maybe my golden flying pigs will mate with my unicorns and give birth to little pigicorns, right ?