India denounced "hopelessly inadequate" Pakistani security after Tuesday's attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore and cited Islamabad for failing to crush militant groups on its soil. "The security for the Sri Lankan cricket team was hopelessly inadequate," Home Minister P. Chidambaram said as he condemned the assault by gunmen that left eight people dead and wounded seven team members.
The Indian government, which had ordered its players to steer clear of Pakistan, said the incident proved Islamabad was not doing enough to combat known militant networks. "It reminds us it is the responsibility of the incumbent government to take all precautions and all steps, particularly when the international community wants member countries to take certain positive steps to fight against terrorism," Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters.
"Unless infrastructure and facilities available to terrorist organisations within Pakistan or territory under its control are completely dismantled... repetition of these incidents will take place," he said.
Both ministers' comments are likely to further stoke tensions with Pakistan which are already running high in the wake of last November's attacks in Mumbai, which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants. The Sri Lankan team was only in Pakistan because a tour by the Indian team had been cancelled after the Mumbai attacks.
"It was not a pleasant decision (to cancel) but we were constrained to take it because the security situation in Pakistan was not safe," Mukherjee said, calling on Islamabad to "take strict measures" against those responsible. "This menace, which is the biggest menace... in the post-Cold War era, should be tackled," he said.
Indian foreign ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash also piled pressure on Islamabad, saying Pakistan-based "terrorists" were a threat to the entire world. "It is in Pakistan's own interest to take prompt, meaningful and decisive steps to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure once and for all," Prakash said.
"We are shocked at the incident," he added. India's Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma said the attack underscored "the enormity of the threat" emerging from Pakistan, while India's governing Congress party branded Pakistan "the epicentre and fountainhead of terror." "Every country in the world must unite against this scourge by isolating the country and demanding immediate concrete results," Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said.