Simon Taufel has been extremely outspoken

[King]

Was watching on Sky TV Aussie news channel and Taufel pretty much noted it was an insider job. Not only did he mention about the attack in which the umpires and the other staff were left stranded while the terrorists had a field day, he also was questioning why the Pakistan team didn't leave with the Sri Lanka team together on that fateful day. He observed both the teams were leaving together all the time but this one time. There was also footage shown with the terrorists roaming on the streets with gay abandon donning assault rifles 1/2 hour post the shooting. The Sky TV Australia was questioning how the terrorists can roam the streets on foot and on mobikes after the mishap. Broad was questioning how come they were not captured even after Pakistan had learnt about the shooting. BTW don't shoot the messenger, I'm shocked the umpire and the ICC referee were so open in questioning the motive of the attack.

[DomainK]

Was watching on Sky TV Aussie news channel and Taufel pretty much noted it was an insider job. Not only did he mention about the attack in which the umpires and the other staff were left stranded while the terrorists had a field day, he also was questioning why the Pakistan team didn't leave with the Sri Lanka team together on that fateful day. He observed both the teams were leaving together all the time but this one time. There was also footage shown with the terrorists roaming on the streets with gay abandon donning assault rifles 1/2 hour post the shooting. The Sky TV Australia was questioning how the terrorists can roam the streets on foot and on mobikes after the mishap. Broad was questioning how come they were not captured even after Pakistan had learnt about the shooting. BTW don't shoot the messenger, I'm shocked the umpire and the ICC referee were so open in questioning the motive of the attack.

Good. They should be. Its not a matter of a bad decision or players code of conduct. Its a matter of life and death. Any video? I would love to watch.

[King]

Good. They should be. Its not a matter of a bad decision or players code of conduct. Its a matter of life and death. Any video? I would love to watch.

No video, I didn't record it but it's possible someone must have uploaded this to Youtube already. Let me take a look.

[King Tendulkar]

Murali is saying the same. That pak left 5 mins after them and usually they went together, murali suggests may have had inside info to leave later. The terrorists were roaming free firing bullets with no reply shots and no terrorists shot dead by return fire. Very suspicious. Broad and tauffel saying same thing as well. One minute security next minute vanished. If you see footage it backs that up. No security at all they had gone, as if knew what was happening

[King]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5849321.ece Australian cricket umpires: 'Pakistan abandoned us in our hour of need' A combination of sketches issued by Pakistani police shows suspects allegedly involved in Tuesday's attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team (Punjab Police Department/Reuters) I thought the driver mentioned the terrorists had beard and on tv they had beard. Whatever happened to their beard? These sketches, issued by Pakistani police, were constructed using witness statements Image :1 of 2 Anne Barrowclough in Sydney and Jeremy Page in Lahore A nation divided | Conspiracy theory | Ben Macintyre | Bronwen Maddox | Mike Atherton | Security fears | Sarah Hoggard Australian cricket umpires caught in the Lahore terror attack and the Sri Lankan spin bowler have backed British referee Chris Broad's claims that the attacks could have been part of a wider conspiracy, and said they were abandoned by police when shooting began. "We were caught in a war zone," umpire Simon Taufel said as he returned home. "We were left on our own in our time of need." Mr Taufel and his fellow Australian umpire Steve Davis were with Mr Broad on a bus carrying officials following the Sri Lankan team coach when at least 12 gunmen staged an ambush at a roundabout near Gaddafi stadium on Tuesday. The attack left eight people dead including their driver and six police officers, and wounded eight Sri Lankan players. Related Links * Broad: Pakistan left us as sitting ducks * Pakistan police arrest 24 suspects but no gunmen * Hero who saved cricketers had 'martyr' brother Yesterday Mr Broad said the attack could have been part of a wider conspiracy, and accused Pakistani security forces of leaving the vehicles like "sitting ducks." "We were promised high level security and in our hour of need, that security vanished," he told reporters on his return to Britain. He also asked why the Pakistani team bus was, unusually, delayed for five minutes. Today, Mr Taufel and Mr Davis backed his claims of conspiracy and asked why they were left helpless and alone. Mr Taufel confirmed to The Times that while the two teams had travelled to the stadium together on the previous two days, on Tuesday there was a five minute delay before the Pakistani team left. "One thing I have been impressed about in Pakistan as that logistically they are usually very well organised. They normally depart on time," he said. "We knew we were departing at 8.30 a.m on the third morning. As to why the Pakistani team left at a different time, I don't know." Spin bowler Muttiah Muralitheran also questioned whether the terrorists had inside information. "Somehow in this incident there were no police with guns on the bus," Muralitharan told Radio5aa in Adelaide. "If someone was there with a gun we would have had a chance of defending ourselves. "Normally all the buses go and we have four or five escorts. We left at 8.30am and Younus Khan (with the Pakistan team bus) at 8.35am.We divided into two - maybe they knew the information for the right time," he said. Their criticism came as Pakistani police issued sketches today of four of the gunmen, taken from eye witness accounts from a car owner and a rickshaw driver, according to city police inspector Asif Rashid. "They appear to be 25 to 30 years old," he said. As he greeted his wife Helen and sons Jack and Harry at Sydney airport, a furious Mr Taufel said he felt abandoned, and expected to be shot at any minute as bullets peppered the officials' van. "The gunfire ... it just kept going," he told reporters. "We thought, when's it going to stop? Who's going to come and save us, how are we going to get out of here? I was expecting to get a bullet. Related Links * Broad: Pakistan left us as sitting ducks * Pakistan police arrest 24 suspects but no gunmen * Hero who saved cricketers had 'martyr' brother "The side door shattered, the front window shattered, the driver got shot in the neck. He started to moan. "The driver got a second bullet to the head, his foot fell on the accelerator. It was quite loud. We didn't know he was dead.” Mr Taufel said there were three vans and four police motorcyles in their convoy but after the attacks they were on their own. "There were not other police vehicles, or any other police defending us," he said. "There was noone protecting us during the firing. "We were isolated, left alone, unaccounted for. We were not given the same security as the playing staff. We were defenceless, helpless, left on our own. I am angry that we were isolated, that we didn't get the same level of security. I am angry. "You tell me why supposedly 20 armed commandos were in our convoy and when the team bus got going again, we were left on our own? I don't have any answers to these questions." He added: "We were promised a nine (out of 10 on security) and got delivered a two. "Our van was caught in a situation where we were wholly exposed. It is not a situation I have been in before," he said. "Cricket has suffered a great loss. It is just a bloody game of cricket and we are in a war.” Mehar Mohamnmed Khalil, the driver of the Sri Lankan bus, told The Times again today that the Sri Lankan and Pakistani teams had driven separately, with separate escorts, to the stadiums for the first two days of the Test match. Mr Khalil, who was de-briefed by Pakistani police on Tuesday evening, said the Sri Lankan team's escort included four police vans with six armed officers in each, one police jeep carrying the commanding officer, and four police outriders. He also denied that the Pakistani team had been delayed by five minutes, or that the security escort had been split between the two teams. However, his version of events has now been contradicted by Mr Muralitharan and three other passengers in the convoy. Younis Khan, the Pakistani captain, told a news conference on Tuesday: "Thank God we decided to leave our hotel five minutes after the Sri Lankans." Australian umpire Steve Davis said as he arrived at Melbourne airport; "There's a bit of anger there that we were let down - we had all sorts of assurances before and I'm sure the (Sri Lankan) team feels that way too," Mr Davis said as he arrived at Melbourne airport. "Despite all that, this was still able to happen and we were put in a very vulnerable position and felt very helpless." Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistan's foreign Minister told a news conference with his Sri Lankan counterpart that investigators were following important leads that would eventually unearth the culprits. Rohitha Bogollagama, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister said it was the first attack on Sri Lankans outside the country and he did not rule out the possibility the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were involved. Khusro Pervaiz, the Lahore administrator, admitted police had warned authorities the Sri Lankan team was at risk. "It's correct that we were forewarned ... there were many pieces of information which came to us," he told Pakistan's Dawn Television. Security for the team could have been 'much, much better,' he said. Officials have offered a reward of $125,000 for information about the men responsible for the attack. A large weapons cache, anti-personnel mines and two unexploded car bombs were found at the scene.

[SachDan]

Good. They should be. Its not a matter of a bad decision or players code of conduct. Its a matter of life and death. Any video? I would love to watch.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7925211.stm

[King Tendulkar]

The driver who is being hailed a hero had a jihadi martyr brother!!!!! His brother died in 1995 fighting for a jihadist militiant group in Kashmir!! The driver is also a supporter of Jamaat e islami the jihadi militant group. He said " This attack would never have happened under Jamaat" He has a picture o his brother in his house with a kalshinikov, camaflouge cap and radio. printed on photo " Mujahid martyred in Kashmir. Died Udampur, India, 25th August 1995. Codename Abdullah"

[punjabi_khota]

The driver who is being hailed a hero had a jihadi martyr brother!!!!! His brother died in 1995 fighting for a jihadist militiant group in Kashmir!! The driver is also a supporter of Jamaat e islami the jihadi militant group. He said " This attack would never have happened under Jamaat" He has a picture o his brother in his house with a kalshinikov, camaflouge cap and radio. printed on photo " Mujahid martyred in Kashmir. Died Udampur, India, 25th August 1995. Codename Abdullah"

dead body never found..probably eaten by hungry dogs. B->B->:finger:

[DomainK]

The driver who is being hailed a hero had a jihadi martyr brother!!!!! His brother died in 1995 fighting for a jihadist militiant group in Kashmir!! The driver is also a supporter of Jamaat e islami the jihadi militant group. He said " This attack would never have happened under Jamaat" He has a picture o his brother in his house with a kalshinikov, camaflouge cap and radio. printed on photo " Mujahid martyred in Kashmir. Died Udampur, India, 25th August 1995. Codename Abdullah"

What a messed up country!!

[cochise]

This whole incident stinks of insider planning.

[Fontaine]

What can you expect from a country that has yet to solve a single terrorist attack in it's borders? While other countries try and root out the extremism and fanaticism that propels these attacks, Pakistan is one of the ONLY countries in the world where not a single terrorist attack has been fully investigated to the point of arresting and convicting these terrorists in dozens upon dozens of attacks over the years. I feel sorry for the genuine cricket fans in Pakistan but when you have a screwed up government that's been hand in hand with terrorists then this is pretty much what happens.

[King Tendulkar]

Well the people have been hand in hand with the terrorists as well, not just the govt. Pak people have alweays supported jihadi action on Kashmir. Now the chckens have come hom to roost. I have no sympathy for pak people. They are quick to jump to the streets over Danish cartoons and such things but have always remained eerily silent with regards to jihadi action. Hard to take a country seriously that has its stadium called the Gadaffi stadium. What next the Bin laden stadium?

[Rajan]

I always respected Taufel as an umpire. I respect him him more after his reaction to the attack. he does not mince words.generally people who dont have any insecurity about theie ability/career/future call the spade a spade or even a shovel.Simon Taufel is one such professional. he has ever reason to feel aggrieved. when ICC sent a security expert to check the risk level, submit a report before the tour started, the pakistanis acted as if they were humiliated by ICC. But ICC explained that they had to conduct this assessment to ensure that no harm is done to their officials. Pakis exhorted SL team and claimed, why ICC shud send the expert to assess when SL sends the national team and all that. My point is, if ICC's security expert ascertained that the situation is not safe enough, and if ICC withdrew their officials, then PCB and the entire pak fans would have claimed BCCI is isolating Pak cricket by pressurising ICC. Now that the cricket team was attacked, what is wrong in Reg Dickason's earlier assessment of pakistan's safety situation when england and australian teams accepted his report and refused to tour Pakistan.all pak fans are abusing Dickason . now Dickason must be laughing at the pakistanis who criticised him for supporting England's test tour of india and for stopping England/australian teams for champions trophy. Dickason is vindicated. this puts the security measures conceived, explained and implemented by TN Police in the right perspective! that is what u call professional policing.right from receiving the england and indian cricket teams in the airport to escorting them to the hotel, creating multiple rings of security around the team hotel/stadium, escorting the teams with 250 policemen convoy with ambulances and commandos security, the TN police instilled great confidence in the cricketers. the Punjab police too took off from where TN police left.absolute safety guaranteed and delivered. in lahore, it looks like there was a larger conspiracy where the elements in police/admin were hand in glove with the terrorists, if u go by the interviews of officials and players. frankly i am not surprised to read elsehwere that a police van was slowly passing by a terrorist who had arms in his hands, but did not take any action! presidential security!!!

[Sachinism]

watch it on liveleak, they should have it

[Anakin]

Until Taufel knows everything for sure, he should keep his mouth shut and show sympathy for the pakistanis for their attack and continuous supply of terrorists and hatred.

[cochise]

I thought the driver mentioned the terrorists had beard and on tv they had beard. Whatever happened to their beard?

They had a shave before posing for the Paki police sketch artist...

[beetle]

The PCB chief is now making an ass of himself by criticizing Murali for asking uncomfortable questions.He was saying ....they don't have rightto say such things because they didn't even get hurt much...we lost some policemen. :omg: edit:I think he was criticizing Broad and not Murali.They were showing murali visual so I thought he was talking about murali.

[Ram]

In the video, the white van in which the umpires and the match refree were traveling lay orphaned in the middle of the road, while two terrorists were right behind it and were gleefully having target practice. What sort of 'Presidential Security' is this? Forget Pakistan being unsafe for visiting tourists, its too dangerous for its residents too. If I were a Pakistani I’d be looking to get out of that mess ASAP, using whatever means available, both legal and illegal.

[Ram]

The PCB chief is now making an ass of himself by criticizing Murali for asking uncomfortable questions.He was saying ....they don't have rightto say such things because they didn't even get hurt much...we lost some policemen. :omg:

What a moronic comment! So is everyone supposed to criticize PCB only if someone was seriously injured or heavens forbid, killed? Lax security is lax security. Its Pakistan’s remarkable fortune that none of the players were seriously injured or killed. Serves the Lankans right though, for traveling to that country in the first place. And he's said the same thing about Broad too;

"All his [broad's] statements are false. He has now made obnoxious comments. That a gentleman of his stature is saying this is unfortunate," he told reporters in Lahore. "He says there was no policemen there [but] I think there could be no bigger lie than this because six policemen died and ten are injured. "Our people have also been injured. We lost six policemen who were trying to protect the cricketers and the match officials. So if some one is complaining about just a scratch, then it is very sad."

Broad must be seething under his skin for consenting to travel to Pakistan to begin with.

[sandeep]

Simon Taufel has been extremely outspoken

I might be too, if i was shot at with AK-47s by murderers, provided with inadequate security, and lived to speak about it.