LAHORE, March 4: The Commissioner of Lahore, Mr Khusro Pervez, has admitted to a huge security failure which led to the attack on the Sri Lankan team in the city’s busy Gulberg area on Tuesday.

Speaking to the NewsEye on DawnNews, he said: “There are certain security lapses which are very vivid and very clear.”

Lahore’s biggest police station is located just 200 yards away from the place where the terrorist attack took place; there is another one just over a kilometre away in the Ghalib Market area.

The assault lasted 20 to 30 minutes but no reinforcements came. When this was pointed out to the commissioner, he said: “The gunmen were meant to be combated by back-up police support which didn’t arrive”. He went on: “All convoys are provided outer cordons, but in this case the outer cordon did not respond, or it was not enough. The vehicles used for escorting the Sri Lankan convoy were not adequate.”

The commissioner went on: “The top priority of the police escorts with the Sri Lankan team was to protect them and transport them to a safe location, not to combat the gunmen.”

When the NewsEye asked him why were the surrounding areas not put on lockdown to hunt down the attackers, he said: “Lahore is very difficult to put under curfew; so instead we decided to chase the assailants using information of their escape routes.”

Mr Khusro Pervaiz frankly stated: “We accept the tragic security failure and we will learn from it.”

The Sri Lankan team was promised “presidential level” security, and Mr Pervaiz said they were given VVIP level security.

The attack came a few days into governor’s rule in the province which led to several changes in the Lahore police set-up. Critics say this was what led to the oversight and security failure.

Asked who should be held accountable for the security failure, the commissioner said it was for the government’s investigation team to determine.
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