Today is a sad day for world cricket. In a reminiscent of the Munich Olympics, gunmen opened fire on the Sri Lankan entourage of cricketers who were heading to the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore, Pakistan for a match. More on the news story here.
So does a conspiracy theory look apt here?? Let me explain:
Pakistan and Sri Lanka are both trying to defeat insurgencies at this point in time. With the massive scale attack that the Sri Lankan authorities have mounted to wipe out the LTTE, this is a country that has finally decided to fix its problems once and for all.
Now, the attack takes place with unidentified gunmen who open fire on the Sri Lankan cricket team. This is the visitor team, so the radar of suspicion is wide open. The prime suspect now becomes the LTTE.
Then there is the world reaction. The usual words like "cowardly", "shocking", "sad" and the other usual adjectives are expressed. But what caught my attention was this statement:
Khaled Farooq, chief of police in Punjab province said the attack "resembles the Mumbai attacks" in November.
Strange this for a police chief to say, at such short notice. I'm not sure if the Pakistani Police personnel are so adept at quick assessment. but eventually, I find that a very strange thing to say in the middle of a definite security, potential political and eventual PR crisis.
By starting this comparison with the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan might have carefully started of the chain in a very well laid out image-cleaning strategy. The stages I see in the conspiracy are as follows:
The attack is staged. If the attack was malicious and with fatal intent, they would have killed the cricketers. terrorists are trained to kill. Yet the players are only injured, while police personnel get killed.
The focus is diverted to Mumbai using comparisons. This would effectively paint Pakistan as a helpless terror victim, while grossly elevating the seriousness of the attack.
Next stage: Garnering US and world support. The helpless terror victim not convinces the world that the terror situation is out of hand and beyond its own control. Pleas for help go out to all the big brothers.
Next stage: Blaming India for the attack. The attack on the cricketers now gets painted as a retaliation by India's Research Analysis Wing for 26/11.
Next step and most dangerous: India becomes the enemy. The attack also gets painted as a retaliation from India motivated by Tamil supporters of the Tamil cause within the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is worthy to note that the current coalition government in power in India has a pretty sizeable chunk of these supporters of the Tamil cause down south. Pakistan wil takethis opportunity to instigate Sri Lanka against India.
This will have two major repercussions:
The 26/11 story gets forgotten. International pressure on Pakistan gets reduced as now it becomes a victim of terror rather than a supporter.
India now has to fight on two fronts rather than one. With the LTTE near decimation, the amicable relationship with Sri Lanka gets eroded beyond repair.
But then its just a theory. Whether its the truth, only time will tell.
So does a conspiracy theory look apt here?? Let me explain:
Pakistan and Sri Lanka are both trying to defeat insurgencies at this point in time. With the massive scale attack that the Sri Lankan authorities have mounted to wipe out the LTTE, this is a country that has finally decided to fix its problems once and for all.
Now, the attack takes place with unidentified gunmen who open fire on the Sri Lankan cricket team. This is the visitor team, so the radar of suspicion is wide open. The prime suspect now becomes the LTTE.
Then there is the world reaction. The usual words like "cowardly", "shocking", "sad" and the other usual adjectives are expressed. But what caught my attention was this statement:
Khaled Farooq, chief of police in Punjab province said the attack "resembles the Mumbai attacks" in November.
Strange this for a police chief to say, at such short notice. I'm not sure if the Pakistani Police personnel are so adept at quick assessment. but eventually, I find that a very strange thing to say in the middle of a definite security, potential political and eventual PR crisis.
By starting this comparison with the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan might have carefully started of the chain in a very well laid out image-cleaning strategy. The stages I see in the conspiracy are as follows:
The attack is staged. If the attack was malicious and with fatal intent, they would have killed the cricketers. terrorists are trained to kill. Yet the players are only injured, while police personnel get killed.
The focus is diverted to Mumbai using comparisons. This would effectively paint Pakistan as a helpless terror victim, while grossly elevating the seriousness of the attack.
Next stage: Garnering US and world support. The helpless terror victim not convinces the world that the terror situation is out of hand and beyond its own control. Pleas for help go out to all the big brothers.
Next stage: Blaming India for the attack. The attack on the cricketers now gets painted as a retaliation by India's Research Analysis Wing for 26/11.
Next step and most dangerous: India becomes the enemy. The attack also gets painted as a retaliation from India motivated by Tamil supporters of the Tamil cause within the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is worthy to note that the current coalition government in power in India has a pretty sizeable chunk of these supporters of the Tamil cause down south. Pakistan wil takethis opportunity to instigate Sri Lanka against India.
This will have two major repercussions:
The 26/11 story gets forgotten. International pressure on Pakistan gets reduced as now it becomes a victim of terror rather than a supporter.
India now has to fight on two fronts rather than one. With the LTTE near decimation, the amicable relationship with Sri Lanka gets eroded beyond repair.
But then its just a theory. Whether its the truth, only time will tell.
