Murali blasts Pak security arrangements, suspects insiders

Melbourne:

Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan on Thursday hit-out at the security arrangements in Pakistan in the wake of the deadly terror attack on his team bus in Lahore and suspected militants had inside information about their movement.

"Somehow in this incident there were no police with guns on the bus," the 36-year-old off-spinner said.

"If someone was there with a gun we would have had a chance of defending ourselves," said the world's highest wicket-taker in both Tests and one-dayers.

"Normally all the buses go and we have four or five escorts," said the spin legend revealing his anguish that there could have been inside information about the Sri Lankan team bus' route to the Gaddafi stadium.

"We left at 8.30am, and Younis Khan (with the Pakistan team) at 8.35am. We divided into two, maybe they knew the information for the right time. They tried to shoot the driver. Then they were shooting both sides of the bus and they counted 39 holes," he told 'Radio 5AA' in an interview.

The off-spinner said he thought Tharanga Paranavitana, who along with Thilan Samaraweera was one of the more seriously wounded players, would die from his injuries.

Paranavitana had a bullet lodged in his chest while Samaraweera had a shrapnel in his right leg.

"There were gun shots going on and the bullets were passing us. I saw Paranavitana was bleeding in the chest. I thought he was gone, actually. Thilan Samaraweera was bleeding, Kumar Sangakkara was bleeding from the shoulder. There was blood everywhere. It was frightening," he said.

Both Paranavitana and Samaraweera were operated upon after they reached colombo yesterday and were known to be recovering.