LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — The Sri Lankan cricket team ambush shows the security system has collapsed in Pakistan since the pro-Western government took office a year ago, a leading opposition politician charged Thursday.Huh?
The fallout from Tuesday's attack is adding to political problems facing the shaky government just as Washington wants it to stay focused on the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban.Oh. Well, you do know bin Laden is in Pakistan, right?
Under intense pressure to show progress in the investigation, authorities claimed to have identified the heavily armed terrorists and were questioning several people, but appeared to have made no major arrests. The gunmen escaped into the teeming city of Lahore following the ambush.
The country's cricket chief, meanwhile, dismissed as "totally fabricated" claims by British referee Chris Broad that police abandoned him and other match officials during the ambush by between 12 and 14 gunmen close to a stadium in Lahore in eastern Punjab province.
With a punishing economic slowdown and a looming political showdown on the horizon, some commentators have taken the brazen assault as fresh evidence the nuclear-armed nation is on a path to becoming a failed state.
Opposition parties and other critics used outrage over the ambush as ammunition against the government.
"The security system in Pakistan under this regime has collapsed because this government is too busy doing other things, they are too busy in their quest for power," opposition politician Mushahid Hussain told a televised news conference.
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