LeT denies involvement in Lahore ambush
With Pakistan turning on the heat on its operatives, in face of mounting international pressures triggered by the gruesome and audacious attacks on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore last Tuesday, the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) on Friday denied involvement in the attack, said a report on the Reuters website.
“The attack on Sri Lankan cricketers is an attack on Pakistan, which Kashmiri Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Tayyeba cannot even think of,” LeT spokesman, Abdullah Ghaznavi, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Taking a cue from Pakistani politicians and diplomats, Ghaznavi – speaking to Reuters from an undisclosed location – said the attacks were launched by India to malign Kashmir and Pakistan.
Coming in the midst of a probe into LeT involvement in the attack, the statements can be construed as nothing more than an attempt, employed by the outlawed outfit, to throw investigators off its tracks.
Media reports on Friday suggested that Pakistan had made substantial headway in investigations into a macabre daylight grenade and gun attack launched on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team.
Though, the cricketers survived the attack with bullet and shrapnel wounds, seven Pakistanis, six policemen and the driver of a bus ferrying umpires, were killed.
Pakistan’s English daily, Dawn said, LeT was fast emerging as prime suspect for the attack, which shocked the world with its audacity and utter irreverence for the law.
The Dawn said that the attack was most likely to have been independently carried out by “headstrong elements” in the LeT.
Meanwhile, Pakistan is reported to have arrested two more suspects for the gruesome attack, after a brief gun-battle in the Lahore Cantonment area on Friday.
(Inputs from Reuters, TOI)
