PCB holds Punjab government, security authorities responsible for Lahore attack
Lahore, Mar. 5: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has held the Punjab Government and security authorities responsible for the Tuesday’s attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team.
According to a source privy to the inner circles of the PCB, the board management had expressed its reservations about holding a Test match at Lahore following the wide scale public protest in the wake of the removal of the Shahbaz Sharif government.
It also had tabled an idea of organizing the match at match at Karachi, the venue of the first Test, or moving it to Faisalabad, but Punjab Governor, Salman Taseer objected to it saying that highest level of security would be provided to cricketers and other officials during the visit.
“That promise was not kept,” The Nation quoted a PCB official, as saying.
It is also learnt that Sohail Khan, the Punjab police officer, who was security in-charge during the Indian cricket team’s tour to Pakistan in 2004 was not shifted from duty in the highway police despite a specific demand by some officials.
“Such guys were well cognizant of specialised security demands on a cricket tour. Their absence from the scene was of critical import,” sources said. (ANI)