Lest We Forget The Pakistan Terror

By Perkins-Tino Bare
It was 6 years ago, to be more precise it was on the 3rd of March in 2009 when 12 gunmen who were hiding near Liberty Square, in the centre of Lahore, waiting for the Sri Lankan team to pass on their way to the Gaddafi stadium. When the bus crossed the road they started firing, targeting the bus. The Pakistan police escorting the Sri Lankan team returned fire; in the ensuing fighting, six policemen and two civilians died and later on they reportedly fled the scene. Now our tem is touring the very same city Lahore for 2 T20I`s and 3 ODI`s scheduled to start on the 22nd of May.  
The Sri Lankan team though they were merely just fulfilling a fixture but it ended up in   six members of their national cricket team being injured. Six Pakistani policemen and two civilians were killed in a devastating attack that left most of the Sri Lankan players traumatised up to this date. 
Now there is a reason why teams haven`t been touring Pakistan and that is pretty much clear on everyone`s side except for one competent organisation named Zimbabwe Cricket. Whose brilliant idea was it anyway to tour Pakistan and though the attack seems to have taken place a long time ago and the threats subsidised lets just bring ourselves up to date. 
Zimbabwe`s Pakistan tour was announced last month and ever since there have been several attacks in Pakistan the recent one being the one that occurred yesterday whereby 45 people were killed and 13 injured in a gun attack on a bus carrying Ismaili Shia Muslims in the Pakistani city of Karachi.The attack was carried out by six gunmen on motorcycles had stopped the bus and fired indiscriminately at passengers.Yesterday, the militant group Taliban later claimed responsibility behind the attack as it said it was behind the shooting and further warned of more attacks in the upcoming weeks.
Now just last week (on Friday that is) there was another incident whereby the two ambassadors and the wives of two other ambassadors were among seven people killed when a helicopter crashed Friday into a school in northern Pakistan. Others Pakistanis and foreigners alike were injured and was also stood out in this attack was that it was also a terrorist attack as. a spokesman for Taliban, insisted that this was no accident. Members of his militant group used a surface-to-air, shoulder-fired missile.The Taliban spokesman said militants had "a special plan to target" Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his anticipated visit to Pakistan's Naltar Valley he said. Now I can go on and on but this happened in a space of a week that from the 8th to the 13th and we have a death toll of 52 people killed all being terrorist attacks yet Zimbabwe Cricket is scheduled to depart for Lahore on Sunday. 
The question on everyone`s lips is have we really become that desperate for game-time that we can go to the extent of risking the lives of our own players? Surely Bangladesh has always been there for us whenever we wanted to have a swing. One thing though that`s clear is that the Chevrons are going to be heavily guarded in case of any attack and Pakistan will certainly make sure that there are no slip-ups i this tour as it crucial for their cricket. 
Whether this decision was made over the phone what is also clear is that it is more than just a case of getting the team more game-time. Pakistan know just how much this ICC ban has had on their value and the PCB as a brand in general as they have had to resort to playing matches out of Afghanistan and this has greatly diminished their home support and they are hoping to hold Zimbabwe Cricket`s feet to a fire they are hoping has extinguished. The stats speak for themselves two terrorist attacks in a space of a week is no joke and hopefully it did not take a brown envelope to satisfy ZC. 
Even though Alistair Campbell and his team went to review the situation and they were fully satisfied with the security which then just shows that there is a lot of arm twisting going around here for surely this does not correspond. Another thing our guys at ZC need to know is that in as much as touring Pakistan is going to give the impression of it being a safe destination, it will certainly encourage other teams as it is not and what we are only doing right here is throwing our boys into the lion`s den and they are surely going to need the Lord`s protection as the threat is uncontrollable.
#StayBlessed