It appears as if the perpetrators of the attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team — in broad daylight in downtown Lahore, Pakistan — won’t be found. They just hopped into motorized rickshaws (what a concept) and zipped away.
Six Sri Lankan cricketers were wounded, as was a British coach. Six Pakistani policemen and two bystanders were killed.
Some links: A New York Times story … and an Associated Press story.
I imagine most of us will ascribe the violence to generic chaos in south Asia and, particularly in Pakistan, which looks less like a country with a government and more like a collection of random bits and violent pieces day by day.
But it ought also to bring home to all of us that a handful of committed crazies — maybe even one — can do great damage to a sports event. Certainly it can be done in this country, with our porous borders and the fairly easy availability of weapons and our haphazard security screenings.
I imagine that the security folks at the Vancouver Olympics are looking closely at this. As should major pro sports teams, which have the pretense of security but no serious screening — as anyone who has been to a game in the past 3-4 years can attest to. I’m not going to put these ideas into someone’s head, because the crazies already know this, but it would be beyond easy to smuggle an automatic weapon into a major sports venue.
I feel badly for fans of cricket, a game perhaps even more pastoral, leisurely and dignified than its relative, the American game of baseball. Baseball may have its seventh-inning stretch, but cricket matches break for lunch and for tea and stretch out over days. They are almost relentlessly civilized events, played by teams in white slacks and sweater vests. I feel particularly bad for cricket fans in Pakistan; the national game is being destroyed by murderous zealots, as this story by Huw Richards in the International Herald Tribune indicates.
We ignore this story at our own peril. And we seem to be ignoring it pretty well. It’s cricket. It’s Pakistan. It isn’t about us.
And that’s a dangerous attitude to lug around.
1 response so far ↓
1 CJ // Mar 4, 2009 at 10:08 PM
I gotta agree with you on the part about the US media ignoring this. But the US media ignores a heck of a lot, especially in regards to international events. If an American isn’t involved, they ignore just about everything outside the country (especially with all their attention focused on Washington and the economy).
While I’m sure the Vancouver Olympic Committee is watching this carefully, there’s another event I worry much more about: The 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The security situation there was already in question, what with the rampant crime throughout the country. I know it’s the FIFA chief’s lifelong dream to hold the competition on African soil, but I just don’t see how the RSA’s army and police force will provide adequate security. And let’s not even take into account the sizable Indian population in cities like Durban that could be targeted by these same Pakistani-affiliated militants.
Part of me is almost glad I lost my newspaper job in LA so I don’t have the money to go to the RSA next year. I think it will be a security nightmare.
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