Pakistan has deployed its army, paramilitary and the Islamabad police to protect Sri Lanka cricketers, who are in Pakistan to play an ODI series, after a deadly car blast near an Islamabad court on Tuesday sparked security concerns.
Pakistan Army Chief and Field Marshal Asim Munir has assured Sri Lankan Defence Minister Pramitha Bandara Tennakoon of the team’s safety, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who also heads the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), told the parliament in a live televised transmission.
Sri Lankan players wanted to return home
The players had reportedly requested the Sri Lanka Cricket Board to allow them to return, after which they were instructed to stay back.
The board said Pakistani authorities had assured security guarantees to return home following the attack, which was the first on civilians in over a decade.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake also spoke directly with his country’s team to convince them to continue their tour.
Notably, the players’ hotel is located at a distance of around 10 kilometres from the blast site. The suicide bombing, which killed 12 people and injured at least 27 others, occurred right before the first ODI between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi.
The PCB has since confirmed that the series will now begin on November 18, with Rawalpindi as the only venue. Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium, which was slated to host the T20 matches, has been dropped from the itinerary.
Pakistan blames India, Afghanistan for attack
Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif has blamed “Indian-sponsored terrorist proxies” for the attack, aimed at “destabilising Pakistan”.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif alleged India backs militants based in Afghanistan to orchestrate the attack, saying that the attack had placed Pakistan “in a state of war”.
“Anyone who thinks that the Pakistan army is fighting this war in the Afghan-Pakistan border region…should take [this] attack…as a wake-up call: this is a war for all of Pakistan, in which the Pakistan army is giving daily sacrifices,” Asif wrote on X.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has also condemned the attack, calling it a “suicide blast”.
The accusations were denied both by Delhi and Kabul.
Blast reignites memories of 2009 attack
In 2009, the Sri Lankan cricket team’s bus was ambushed by gunmen in Lahore, leaving at least six cricketers injured and eight others dead, including police personnel and civilians.
The attack was believed to have been carried out by a terror group named Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. In August 2016, three of the terrorists involved in the attack were killed during a police raid in Lahore, Pakistani media had reported.