Mr. Rajapaksa has cut short his visit to Nepal by a day and is returning to Colombo.
A statement released by the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry here said Mr. Rajapaksa responded to a telephone call from Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani in Kathmandu. In the course of the conversation, the Pakistani leaders apologised to the people and the government of Sri Lanka for the harm caused to some members of the cricket team in the terrorist attack.
Mr. Rajapaksa told the Pakistani leaders that he was sending Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama to Islamabad immediately to attend to matters pertaining to the incident. Mr. Rajapaksa also instructed the state-owned SriLankan Airlines to send a special aircraft to Lahore to facilitate the return of the cricket team.
As per officials here, the plane took off from Katuynayaka International Airport in the evening on Tuesday and it was expected to return in the early hours of Wednesday with the cricket team.
The news of the attack came as a shock to the people of Sri Lanka which is reeling under war and has witnessed several terrorist attacks in the course of the 25-year-old ethnic conflict. The first two hours were particularly tense for the citizens of the cricket-loving island nation. However, once it became clear that all players are safe there was a sense of relief.
Members of the opposition in Parliament questioned the wisdom of the President in sending the cricket team to Pakistan; particularly when teams from other countries had refused to travel there on grounds of security.
Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge told Parliament the tour was finalised after assurances from the Pakistani government that the team members would be provided security on par with a head of state. He said Pakistan had stood by the nation in similar situations in the past.
The statement from the Foreign Ministry quoted the Pakistani leaders as telling Mr. Rajapaksa that Islamabad was determined to combat terrorism and would work with the international community and Sri Lanka to defeat terrorism.
The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona was in touch with his counterpart in Islamabad and the High Commissioner-designate of Sri Lanka to Pakistan Jayalath Weerakkody had been directed to proceed to Lahore to assist the team.
Dr. Kohona told the media that the Lahore attack would not affect relations between Sri Lanka and Pakistan. He also emphasised commitment from the cricketing world to make certain the presence of Pakistan as a major player in the game.
Praising the Pakistani forces for securing the safety of the cricketers, Dr. Kohona recalled the solidarity shown by Pakistan and India towards the island nation during the 1996 cricket world cup when Sri Lanka was “blacklisted as an unsafe destination by foreign propagandists”.
Asked on the possible involvement of the LTTE in the Lahore attack, he said: “We have to wait until Pakistan conclude initial investigations before drawing speculations”. He said the LTTE had links with extremist terrorist organisations in the troubled borders of the South Asian region.
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