By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has ringed the Sri Lankan cricket team with army and paramilitary troops and moved an entire Twenty20 tri-nation tournament to Rawalpindi after a suicide bombing in the capital on Tuesday killed 12 people and rattled a sport still haunted by the 2009 attack on the same visiting side.
The blast, one of the deadliest in Islamabad in years, exploded outside a court complex and wounded 27 others. Hours later, gunmen stormed a military-run school in Wana, in the northwest, killing three people before being shot dead by security forces. The coordinated violence prompted Pakistan to accuse militants operating from Afghanistan and enjoying Indian backing — charges swiftly rejected by both Kabul and New Delhi.
On Thursday, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told a televised session of Parliament that army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir had personally assured Sri Lanka’s defence minister, Pramitha Bandara Tennakoon, that the visiting players would be safe. “Our army and paramilitary are deployed for the Sri Lankan team’s security,” Naqvi said. Both the team’s hotel and the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, where Sri Lanka is completing a three-match one-day series, lie less than 10 kilometers from the site of Tuesday’s bombing.
Sri Lanka Cricket said Wednesday that several players had asked to fly home after the explosion — the first deadly attack on civilians in the capital in a decade. The board ordered the squad to remain, citing “foolproof” security guarantees from Pakistani authorities.
The Pakistan Cricket Board announced later Thursday that the Twenty20 tri-series involving Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, originally set to be shared between Rawalpindi and Lahore, will now be played entirely at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium starting November 18.“The decision to revise the schedule was made in consultation with Sri Lanka Cricket and Zimbabwe Cricket, following mutual discussions to accommodate operational and match requirements,” the PCB said in a statement. The remaining two one-day internationals against Sri Lanka will go ahead as scheduled in Rawalpindi on Friday and Sunday.
The sudden escalation has revived raw memories of March 2009, when gunmen ambushed Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore, killing six police officers and two civilians and wounding several players. International cricket deserted Pakistan for nearly a decade afterward. Only painstaking security arrangements — convoys, armored buses, hotel lockdowns — have lured major teams back in recent years. The tri-series had been viewed as important preparation for next year’s Twenty20 World Cup, which India and Sri Lanka will co-host.
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