SL cricket team attacker arrested

One of the terrorists involved in the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team on March 3, 2009 has been apprehended in Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan.

Sources told The Express Tribune that police arrested Adnan Khosa for a bank robbery that took place on May 14 in Taunsa Sharif, a city in Dera Ghazi Khan district. Upon interrogation, Khosa confessed that he and his father, Qari Irshad, had been involved in the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.

Khosa and his father had fled the country after the attack, according to sources, and had only recently returned from Dubai.

Soon after the attack, police had arrested a man named Zubair from Hotel Makhan, on the Indus Highway near Shah Saddar Din, another town in Dera Ghazi Khan. Zubair had mentioned an accomplice by the name of Adnan Khosa during his interrogation.

According to police sources, Zubair had even identified the town – Shah Fateh Hilal Azmat – where Khosa lived. It is unclear if law enforcement officials tried to arrest Khosa after receiving that information.

Police officials are denying the arrest took place. Tassaduq Hayat, the head of the Dera Ghazi Khan police said that no such arrest had been made.
The attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team led to Pakistan losing its ability to host international matches as most teams refused to visit.

Khosa is not the first alleged militant from his small town. A suicide bomber who tried to blow up Islamabad Airport was a resident of Rasheedabad Colony, a neighbourhood adjacent to Khosa’s. (The Express Tribune, May 16th, 2011)