Washington, Mar 8 : The attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team last week points towards the Punjabi terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which most independent analysts think carried out the attacks in Mumbai last year.

The gunmen worked in pairs and carried walkie-talkies and backpacks stuffed with water, dried fruit and other high-energy food, perhaps anticipating a protracted standoff after taking the cricket team hostage.

According to The Scotsman, the Pakistani security services and most of the Pakistani elite are in state of denial.

Too many simply refuse to face the extent to which the terrorist threat from Islamist radicals comes from within Pakistan.

Sardar Nabil Ahmed Gabol, the Pakistani minister for shipping, has blamed India for the attack. Hamid Gul, the retired general and former chief of the Pakistani security services, has said "it''s all too obvious that it is the handiwork of the Indian intelligence".

Like much of the Muslim world, Pakistan is rife with conspiracy theories.

Then why is Pakistan in such deep denial?

According to Azeem Ibrahim, a Research Fellow at the International Security Program, Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Member of the Dean''s International Council, Harris School of Public Policy and Diplomacy at the University of Chicago, it is perhaps because the extent of homegrown radicalism is too painful to face up to.

There is also perhaps a misplaced sense of privilege to be one of the few who can see "the truth" behind the smoke and mirrors, he adds. (ANI)