"Lahore attack on Sri Lankan cricket team last was financed by LTTE" says Pakistan Premier

(By: Walter Jayawardhana)

Pakistani investigators have discovered the attack on the Sri Lankan Cricket team in Lahore, Pakistan was financed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) terrorist group.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousouf Raza Gilani told reporters that the finding by the Pakistani law enforcement authorities has been already conveyed to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa when they met recently in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.

He told reporters that a Pakistani team of detectives will be coming to Sri Lanka to further investigate the involvement of the LTTE terrorists and share information with the Sri Lankan government on the attack of the cricket team.

Pakistani Prime Minister told reporters detectives have now got indications to suggest that the terrorist group LTTE had financed the attack by 12 gunmen on the bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers, March 2009, near Gadaffi Stadium in Lahore.

In June this year a terrorist group called Tehrik-e-Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers.

LTTE terrorists have maintained connections with the Pakistani and Middle Eastern terrorist groups and the widely used suicide jackets by the Middle Eastern suicide missions is an invention by the LTTE, security experts say.

In March the Sri Lankan cricketers were on their third day of the second test match when the attack occurred. The damage to the Sri Lankan cricket team would have been greater if not for the bravery of the Pakistani driver of the coach who drove through a hail of bullets by the attacking gunmen. Six members of the Sri Lankan cricket team were injured while six Pakistani policemen and two civilians were killed.

The International Cricket Council cancelled Pakistan as the venue for the World Cup matches in 2011 followed by the cancellations of many scheduled visits of foreign cricket teams to the country, costing the nation millions.