Lahore, July 23(ANI): The Pakistan government has provided security guards to Malik Ishaq, a key suspect in the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, who was released from Kot Lakhpat Jail after the country's Supreme Court granted him bail.
A local police official said that four guards were deployed at Ishaq's house in view of the threat posed by a large number of people visiting him everyday, the Express Tribune reports.
Ishaq, one of the founders of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, had been accused of plotting the attack on the cricket team while he was in prison.
He had been in prison since 1997 and had 44 cases ranging from murder to terrorism lodged against him, but the Supreme Court acquitted him in 34 cases and granted him bail in the rest.
The attack on the Sri Lankan team occurred on March 3, 2009, when a bus carrying the cricketers was fired upon by 12 gunmen, near the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
The cricketers were on their way to play the third day of the second Test against Pakistan.
Six members of the Sri Lankan team were injured. Six Pakistani policemen and two civilians were killed.
These were the first attacks on a national sports team since the Munich massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian militants in 1972.
The attack was carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the outlawed militant groups with close links to Al-Qaeda. (ANI)
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