Liberty Chowk, Lahore, Pakistan - The venue of 3/3 attacks on Sri Lankan Cricketers. by Nayyar Hashmey
The attack on Sri Lankan cricketers on 3/3 in Lahore has raised many questions about our political setup running the affairs of the Punjab province.
Different analyses and versions by individuals, groups, think tanks and the media including the blogosphere are being put up at relevant forums. But a very interesting and thought provoking pinup appeared on the pages of Pak Tea House blog “PTH” (pakteahouse.wordpress.com). The questions raised in this post had already been in the minds of different quarters not only in Pakistan but in India as well.
Naturally different scenarios are being constructed as to who could possibly these people have been, who indulged in this barbarism and who did mastermind the plot.
Interestingly many people in India have been pondering over such acts like the one on 26/11 in Mumbai and of 3/3 in Lahore. One such voice is of Arundhati Roy. Roy is a voice that has been highly vocal in her views on Kashmir, on minorities, on Hindutva extremists and on unilateral demonizing of Muslims in the Indian and the international media.
I therefore present first the views expressed by a contributor of the PTH, who has reproduced an article written by one Professor R. Vaidyanathan of the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, India. This is then followed by comments by the Pakistani contributor; and finally the comments by blogger himself (Raza Rumi) to which I fully subscribe as well.
This is then followed by Roy’s detailed viewpoint. Suzanna Arundhati Roy is an Indian writer and activist who won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and in 2002, the Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize. This is being published courtesy outlookindia.com
It should be interesting for WOP readers that Roy expressed these views almost two months before Lahore attacks when whole of India was gripped in the fever of going for an attack on Pakistan.
PTH ’s report continues…
The Pakistan People’s Party government has found what it feels is compelling evidence of a convergence of Al-Qaeda and Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to carry out the Lahore travesty. While not ruling out the Tamil Tiger connection, the government has rounded up over 100 people all over Pakistan, especially in cities of Hyderabad, Rahim Yar Khan and Quetta. The suspects said to be involved in this violence are identified as an Afghan citizen named Abdul Rahman, an unidentified Uzbek citizen, one “Aslam” arrested from Hyderabad Sindh, who is said to be a RAW agent.
Four suspects have been taken into custody from Firdaus Market, Lahore, who, sources claim, have been positively identified by eye-witnesses including the driver of the car and the rickshaw that were snatched and then used in the travesty. It may be remembered that given a popular local TV channel’s convenient location nearby as well as close circuit TVs that are found in the back alleys of Liberty Market, all the terrorists are caught on tape and the government is very confident that they can crack the case.
If accusation of the involvement of Indian Raw is true, it just shows the mindlessness of the entire episode. Hindsight is 20/20. It is said that Indian government had “prophetically” warned the Sri Lankan Cricket Team against touring Pakistan. The Indian government had seen it as a slight by the Island nation which has faced enough terrorism and violence itself. It is possible that Sri Lanka was dragged into the whole mess because it dared to defy the might of India.
For reference and discussion we reproduce here an article widely circulated in the Indian media in the aftermath of Mumbai outrage which seems to have caught the imagination of policy makers in New Delhi:
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