Pak team in Sri Lanka to probe Lahore attack on cricketers

Colombo/Islamabad:

A Pakistani probe team has arrived in Sri Lanka to investigate whether there were any local links, including the possibility of the role of LTTE, on the attack on the Lankan cricket team in Lahore in March.

The visit by the four-member team comes more than a month after Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa had told him that elements from his country may have been involved in the brazen attack on the cricket team.

"A four-member team arrived here yesterday. They are expected to spend some time here in this connection (to probe any local links to the attack)," official sources in Colombo said.

They said the team would probe the role of local links, including any possibility of LTTE role, to the attack in Lahore on March three that killed eight persons and injured 20 others including some Lankan players.

In Islamabad, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the team is investigating whether there are any Sri Lankan links to the attack.

"It will also review the probe conducted by Sri Lankan authorities into the same incident. The Pakistani team has gone to Sri Lanka for two weeks though the duration of the trip can be extended," he said.

Malik said Pakistan is determined to expose those who were behind the attack and cooperation with Sri Lanka will continue to ensure a speedy probe.

The investigation can be strengthened through exchange of information between the two countries, he said.

Malik had last month said that the Sri Lankan government had handed over some important clues that were being examined and these leads were expected to help nab the persons behind the attack.

Gilani directed Malik to send a team of experts to Sri Lanka after Rajapaksa gave him clues linking elements in the island nation with terrorist attacks in Pakistan, including the strike on the Sri Lankan cricket team.