Investigation and Attribution
Immediately following the attacks, unnamed Pakistani authorities blamed the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a militant organisation banned in both Pakistan and India. Pakistani officials said that the attacks were similar in to the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Most of the Pakistani press blamed Pakistani Islamist militants and Al-Qaeda for the attacks. Police said that kidnapping was a possible motive, but police officials refused to comment on this.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said on 4 March that he could not rule out involvement of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the Lahore attacks. Some European intelligence sources supported this suspicion. Sri Lankan military officials, on the other hand, were sceptical of LTTE involvement, and an LTTE spokesperson labelled reports of LTTE connection as 'not true'. A junior Pakistani cabinet minister said that the government had evidence that the attackers came from India, but the Pakistani Information Minister, Sherry Rehman, denied any government knowledge of Indian involvement. On 6 March 2009 it was reported that officials had categorically ruled out involvement of Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing and LTTE and were zeroing in on Lashkar-e-Taiba. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama was quoted as saying
From our point of view, there is no Indian involvement. India has helped us in our counter-terrorist efforts. I don't see a need for India to target the Sri Lankan cricket team.
On the morning of the attack, the Sri Lankan and Pakistani cricket teams did not depart from the hotel together, as they had done on previous days, and the Pakistani team's schedule was delayed by 5 minutes. Statements by Australian umpire Simon Taufel, match referee Chris Broad, and spin bowler Muralitharan, referencing this delay sparked conspiracy theories that the militants were acting on inside information. Later, Muralitharan expressed alarm at such interpretations of his comments and explained that he only suspected the gunmen to be monitoring the team movements.
Federal Bureau of Investigation director Robert Mueller arrived in Pakistan the day after these attacks and met with Pakistani officials to discuss security issues and the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Interior Adviser Rehman Malik, told the National Assembly Standing Committee on the Interior that no evidence of LeT's involvement has been found so far, and that sufficient evidence has been surfaced pointing to involvement of a foreign hand.
Read more about this topic: 2009 Attack On The Sri Lanka National Cricket Team
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