In my travels to South Asia over the years, I became a fan of cricket (at least of the One Day International version), which can be as exciting and compelling as any American sport.  My friend Harini and I used to have a pretend-argument over whether baseball or cricket was the superior sport.  And in 1996, I happened to be in Colombo, Sri Lanka, when the Sri Lankan team won its first (and so far only) World Cup.  It put any celebration by an American city after a major championship to shame.

So today’s news that gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team during a tour of Pakistan is particularly disturbing:

A dozen gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan national cricket team and its police escort in a brazen commando-style operation in the city of Lahore on Tuesday, killing six police officers and wounding six cricketers before fleeing in motorized rickshaws, the Lahore police chief and a Sri Lankan official said. . . .

The police chief said 12 gunmen attacked the cricketers, and were positioned in vehicles, including motorized rickshaws. According to another police official, Shoaib Janbaz, the gunmen fired a rocket-propelled grenade but it missed the motorcade and did not explode. Police escorts who were traveling in a van fired back but failed to hit the attackers, witnesses said.

The assailants fled in the rickshaws and another vehicle stolen near the scene, Mr. Janbaz said, leaving behind rucksacks filled with pistols, hand grenades and an AK-47 assault rifle, he said. Television footage showed several of the gunmen firing with apparent impunity, spraying bullets from automatic rifles from the traffic circle and a grassy sidewalk area.

No one has yet claimed responsibility.  Given the description of the attackers as “bearded,” I presume that police will focus on Islamic militants as the culprits.  That said, I wouldn’t rule out the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Sri Lanka’s own terrorist group, which has been the target of a government offensive that has rolled up much of previously held LTTE territory.

As you’d expect, politicians in the region already are using the attack to pursue their own agenda. A Pakistani minister has suggested that this was an Indian “conspiracy” to “defame” Pakistan.  An Indian official has reminded everyone that Pakistan’s indigenous terrorists are “a grave threat to the entire world.” And the Sri Lankan foreign minister talked about renouncing all forms of violence and terrorism — which, of course, is code for “destroy the LTTE.”

Our thoughts and wishes go out to those, both Pakistani and Sri Lankan, who were killed or wounded in the attack.

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