Wed, March 04, 2009
COLOMBO, March 4 (Xinhua) -- It was a narrow shave for the Sri Lankan cricket team when they survived a terrorist attack in Lahore, Pakistan Tuesday.
The Sri Lankan team returned home in the wee hours of Wednesday on a specially chartered flight to an emotional welcome by family and friends here.
"We all were lucky to come out of that," Captain Mahela Jayawardene told reporters, recalling the incident that left eight people killed and six Sri Lankan cricketers injured.
"Honestly I did not think I could come back to Sri Lanka during that five minutes or so. There were bullet holes everywhere on our bus. I just do not know how we escaped," the Sri Lankan captain said.
Sri Lankan team bus came under a terrorist attack while they were being driven to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore for the third day of the second Test match with the Pakistani national team.
The Sri Lankan team had defied security concerns expressed by most other international teams who due to security fears stayed out of touring Pakistan.
"I heard what looked like sounds of crackers. The next I saw was two cars reversing onto our bus," Tillekeratne Dilshan, one of the players said.
"Next was the sound of gun fire and we all went down on the floor of the bus. Then I shouted to the driver to drive fast, fast," Dilshan recalled the harrowing experience.
Sri Lankans said they were grateful to the driver of the team bus, Meher Mohammad Khalil for saving their lives. He drove the bus to the stadium despite being attacked with rocket propelled grenades and automatic gunfire.
"It is a great relief to be with the families after the incident," Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan captain said.
Dilshan said he noticed security provided to the team was somewhat relaxed than when they toured Pakistan in January.
Sri Lankan government said it had accepted security guarantees given by the Pakistani government. The tour came as a result of India opting out of touring Pakistan accusing Pakistani involvement of terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India last November.
