Not Cricket! Sri Lanka's Cricket Team Attacked in Pakistan

Sri Lanka's government is ticked off, America's President Obama is "deeply concerned," at least seven police officers are dead, and eight Sri Lankan cricketers wounded.

This time, unpleasantness in a Muslim country isn't 'the fault of the Jews.'

'India did it.'

I'm dubious, myself, but a chap with a very impressive title in Pakistan said so.

Pakistani Minister: Indian Terrorism Killed Cricketers

I'll give the Pakistani minister for Ports and Shipping credit for showing khutzpah. Where westerners might assume that the Taliban or Al Qaeda were behind this attack, Nabeel Gabol blamed India.

'Obviously,' since a bunch of terrorists (apparently) based in Pakistan hit Mumbai, India hit Pakistan. Given what seems to be the cultural norm in the Middle East, Nabeel Gabol may really believe what he said:

"A Pakistani minister blamed arch-rival India for a brazen attack on a visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in the northeastern city of Lahore on Tuesday, March 3, that killed seven people and wounding others, including five players.

" 'This is an attack on Pakistan," Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Nabeel Gabol told IslamOnline.net.

" 'There is no doubt about Indian involvement in this terrorist attack.'..." (IslamOnline.net)

Dead Cops, Wounded Cricketers, Al Qaeda, India, and the Lizard People

Pakistan's Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping may be right. Maybe someone in the Indian government went stark, raving, moonbat crazy, and ordered a hit on the Sri Lankan cricket team. Just to spite Pakistan.

Or, maybe the shape-shifting lizard people who run the world used hypnosis rays from invisible satellites to make Indian authorities commit this atrocity.

I think it's less likely that David Icke's space alien shape shifting lizard people were involved, than that the Indian government ordered the attack on cricketers. But I don't think either possibility is all that likely. And, no, I don't think the lizard people are real.

Maybe I'm being 'simplistic,' but I think it's a bit more likely that the Taliban, Al Qaeda, or some other group that really doesn't want Pakistan and India to get along, or doesn't like cricket, shot up the Sri Lankan cricket team.

Anti-Cricket Terrorists in South Asia? Ethnic Activists with Poor Judgment?

It's possible - although maybe not likely - that the people who attacked the Sri Lankan cricketers are from Sri Lanka, themselves. The Tamil Tigers (AKA Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE) want their own ethnic group to have an independent homeland. And, don't seem to care how many people they have to kill to get their way.

Digression: Getting What You Want isn't All its Cracked Up to Be

If the Sri Lankan government was run by amoral people, who had studied Machiavelli, they might give the Tamil Tigers exactly what they want. Sri Lanka isn't all that big a country to begin with, and Mullaitivu district (the colorful spot on that map of Sri Lanka) is even smaller.

Micronations don't always do so well. Survivors in Tamil territory might be willing to abandon dreams of their 14th century heyday, after a reality check.

Not that all Tamils are behind the separatists: quite a few have left Sri Lanka entirely.

Time to get back on topic.

Death to the Cricketers?! Beware Unintended Consequences

Whoever is responsible for attacking a cricket team in Pakistan, they may not like what happens next. Cricket is rather popular in south Asia, it seems: think football (soccer, for American readers) in England, Brazil, and other parts of the world.

There will be that flash of publicity, and maybe they'll reach their immediate goals.

But, I remember the Munich Olympics, 1972. 'Palestinian rights activists' killed 11 Israeli athletes and got on the international news. Huge publicity coup for them. In America, though, it was around that time that reporters stopped repeating terrorists' press releases verbatim, began using verbs like "kill" where they used to say "execute," when a Jew or other oppressor died abruptly while in the company of a terrorist - and started calling terrorists 'terrorists' more often.

All things considered, 'executing' young athletes may not have been quite as good an idea as it seemed at the time.

I think there may be a 'cricket backlash' after this little exercise in terror, with a no ball declared and the opposing side getting a free hit. But, only time will tell.

Related posts:

• "Taliban Brings Peace, Islamic Law, to Pakistan's Swat Valley"
  (February 21, 2009)
• "Pakistan, the Taliban, and Peace Through Diplomacy"
  (February 17, 2009)
• "Lebanon, Israel, Pakistan, India, and the Lizard People"
  (January 14, 2009)
• "Committee to Protect Journalists Unveils the Impunity Index"
  (April 30, 2008)
• "Tamil Terror? Bomb Blows up Bus in Sri Lanka"
  (January 16, 2008)

News and views:

• "TV: 60 suspects related to attack on Sri Lankan team arrested"
  Xinhua (March 4, 2009)
• "An excuse to point fingers at India"
  The Times of India (March 4, 2009)
• "Pakistan must confront its enemy within"
  telegraph.co.uk (March 3, 2009)
• "Terrorising cricket"
  Financial Times (March 3, 2009)
• "Fans: 'Cricket loses its innocence in Pakistan'"
  CNN (March 3, 2009)
• "Obama says 'deeply concerned' over Pakistan attack"
  Reuters (March 3, 2009)
• "Sri Lanka stunned, angered by Lahore attack"
  AFP (March 3, 2009)
• "Pakistan Blames India for Cricket Attack"
  Islamonline.net (March 3, 2009)
• "Lankan president cuts short Nepal visit"
  The Times of India (March 3, 2009)

More:

• "Terrorism East of Lahore"