The preliminary report regarding the March 3 Lahore terrorist attack on Sri Lankan cricketers was presented to Advisor to the Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik in the Interior Ministry here on Thursday.
The investigators informed the Advisor that the report was prepared on the basis of statements of eye-witnesses and people detained, including those who were believed to be directly involved in the attack, and footage of some television channels and close circuit security cameras (CCTV), sources told Business Recorder.
The report would be made public after getting views of the Sri Lankan government, said the sources. Some important leads and clues regarding the people behind this heinous act were attained by the investigators and it is expected that these leads will guide the law-enforcement agencies towards the main culprits.
They said that it was being assumed that people, who had been arrested in their confessional statements, tried to misguide the investigators and diverted the direction of investigation. The attack, being compared with Mumbai carnage of November 26, was the biggest attack on foreigners in Pakistan since the attack on Islamabads Marriott Hotel last September in which the Czech ambassador and three American marines were among the 80 people killed.
The sources said that the investigators were of the view that the terrorists were using March 3 attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore to facilitate the release of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba commander Zakir-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.
Lakhvi is, at present, in the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Adiala Central Jail. The FIA investigators for facilitating the terrorists who executed the November 26, 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai arrested him. Investigation agencies believed that the attack on Sri Lankan players was planned and carried out by a Lashkar operative.
It is pertinent to note that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Advisor on Interior Rehman Malik had also said that the Lahore attackers wanted to hijack the bus, carrying the visiting team.
But the sources revealed that the important forensic evidences were destroyed by the ill-equipped and careless forensic experts, who were collecting the samples from the crime scene of attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Foreign Policy Committee of the Danish Parliament, led by Gitte Lillelund Bech, MP, called on Rehman Malik. Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah, and Danish Ambassador Carsten Damsgaard also attended the meeting. The meeting held in a very cordial atmosphere in which matters of mutual interest came under discussion.
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