Attack on Sri Lankan Team

A lot has been said and seen about this morning’s attack on Sri Lankan Cricket Team. Whilst most of the news channels were more concerned about “who� was behind it, the defense and strategic analysts went on and on about the “nature� of the attacks, “motives’, and Mumbai signatures, on the other hand the cricketers’ focus was on the demise of Pakistan home based international cricket. No one however, bothered to find out how and why did it happen. With the exception of Senator Enver Baig, Sarfraz Nawaz and former CEO Arif Abbassi broached the subject of security lapses.

For the record, PCB spearheads the security arrangements of all international fixtures in Pakistan. And it is PCB’s responsibility that it ensures that the security of the visiting team and ICC officials namely umpires and referees are ensured. The Standard Operating Procedures are as follows:

As soon as the venues and dates are finalized by International Cricket Division of PCB, the Administration Division forms organizing Committees with Provincial Government top echelon as the patron and chief organizers and lists the sub-committees to hold matches in different cities of Pakistan. It is PCB responsibility to hold the pre-series meeting and ensure that all stakeholders are present. I am sure that this must have happened this time. At the culmination of this meeting a security plan is issued by the head of Police for compliance by all concerned. Before the revival of the Commission rate system, the Interior secretary of the province used to head this meeting.

However, in a haste to remove the Administration’s top officials, Ijaz Butt forgot that he has no one in PCB Administration department including the present COO who is familiar with the SoPs that were put in place at the direction of ICC Security consultants who were present in Pakistan during the Bangladesh series and following that series they made certain recommendations to Pakistan Government regarding the team's safety. These Standard Operating Procedures were agreed.

The salient features are as follows:

a) A police officer no less than the rank of SP shall be permanently attached with the team as Liaison Officer, who will not only travel with the visiting team but would stay at the hotel with team. His primary responsibility was to act as coordinator between the Commander of the stadium and all other commanders including, City Chief Traffic Officer, jurisdictional SP of the team route, and the stadium in charge, namely SP Model Town.
b) The agreed SoPs sealed and signed by Pakistani Government, namely Rehman Malik, stipulated the following:
i) Two routes for visiting teams travel to and fro from hotel to the stadium shall be made available.
ii) The final route shall be decided by the accompanying SP of the team at the recommendation of the Command and Control Centre at the venue.
iii) The route shall be completely sealed off with blockade of arteries leading the road where the team were to travel
iv) One hour before the scheduled departure of the team from the hotel all vehicles parked within 200 yards of the road would either be removed or towed.
v) Special Branch police will sweep the 200 yards area leading to the route with sniffer dogs and electronic gadgets
vi) Special Branch personnel would be deployed well in advance in the dwellings close to the proposed routes to gather Intel
vii) Sharp shooters would be deployed on all high rises on route and around the stadium
viii) The team convoy would move in a box formation meaning thereby that there would be two pilots (traffic wardens) followed by an Elite Force vehicle, umpires van, team bus, and two Elite Force vehicles to provide cover to the bus on both side and one at the tail. These vehicles would be followed by ambulance and fire engine.
ix) These were the agreed SoPs signed off by Rehman Malik and the security consultants who made these observations inter-alia other measures to be taken.

Viewing today’s camera footage, I believe that none of the above was adhered to. I ask PCB to explain the following:

a) Why was Liberty roundabout open to public whereas it used to be cordoned off one hour before the scheduled departure of the teams?
c) Was there a SP attached to the visiting as well as home team?
d) Why were those rickshaws allegedly carrying these terrorists allowed to stay within the reachable distance of the incoming Sri Lankan coach?
e) Was there a command and control centre set up in NCA like it was set up during Asia Cup?
f) If Main Boulevard was to be the route, was that road secured as we had agreed with ICC?
g) Were there Police constables deployed on the roofs of high rises as agreed, and if so, can someone explain why terrorists were firing from the roof of Hockey Stadium?
h) Was there a Command and Control Center present in NCA as it was during the Asia Cup?

From the pictures, seen by all of us, we have observed, that there was serious lapse of security due to lack of compliance on part of PCB and law enforcement agencies. The reasons are quite simple and palatable:

a) Punjab police lacked the institutional experience to hold series in this town owing to the recent eleventh hour changes in police hierarchy
b) PCB lacks institutional experience in terms of the knowledge of the agreement with ICC and the accord between them due to Ijaz Butt’s hurried expulsion of seasoned administrators. Wasim Bari has hosted one one-dayer in his tenure as Director Administration
c) The key position of GM Security and Administration has yet to be filled by PCB. This person is exclusively responsible for liaison with the police and various other agencies to ensure that SoPs agreed in pre-series meetings are followed by police and other agencies
d) Inexperience of Wasim Bari as Director Admin is quite evident from the fact that he was nowhere to be seen during this disaster


Last but not the least, there was an air of complacency in the minds of PCB and Punjab Police because both of them were not expecting large crowds to converge on GSL and therefore the proper arrangements were not made. It is highly inconceivable that rickshaws carrying terrorist would be allowed to park just yards away from the Sri Lankan team’s route. I must at this point in time thank the untiring services of some of the policemen who took Rehman Malik and ICC’s direction to their heart. It includes, the then ASP Ali Rizvi, Habibaullah now CTO Lahore, A.D. Khawaja of Karachi Police and his team and we demonstrated that we as a nation can deliver no matter what the odds are. Karachi Police was as unprepared as they can be, but with the assistance of PCB they managed to put on a showcase for the rest of the country. It would be unfair to mention SSP Yousfazai who spent tireless hours to ensure that we comply with what ICC wanted. Why did Punjab Police failed is a mystery only known to them or the ‘emperor’ who rules the roost!