Sri Lankan cricket team attack mastermind killed in Afghanistan

KABUL: The mastermind of the Sri Lankan cricket team attack in 2009 was killed in Afghanistan on Sunday in a Afghan National Army’s search operation.

The Afghan National Army and Nato forces conducted an operation early morning in the Sarobi district of Paktika province.

The mastermind, Qari Ajmal, was killed during the operation whereas his three accomplices, including the TTP Hakeemullah group’s Nasir Wazeer, were detained.

Qari Ajmal was a resident of Punjab and belonged to the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group.

One week before, TTP’s Khalid Sajna group’s spokesperson Azam Farooq was killed along with his son Irfan.

In August, three terrorists suspected of being behind the attack were killed by the Lahore Police during a shootout.

In June, six members of a banned outfit were indicted in the case by an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC).

The suspects included Obaidullah Javed, Anwar, Ibrahim Khalil, Abdul Wahab Zubair and Adnan Arshad. The first three suspects are on bail while the others are behind bars.

The Sri Lankan cricket team was traveling by bus when at least 10 gunmen fired at them in March 2009 at the Liberty Chowk near the Qaddafi Stadium on March 3, 2009 with rifles, grenades and rockets, wounding six players and a British coach and killing eight Pakistanis.