The entire cricketing world was jolted on March 3. It was the most unfortunate day for cricket in Pakistan. It all happened though least expected to have happened to a popular sport like cricket when over a dozen trained and professional armed gunmen attacked Sri Lankan Cricket team when it was passing through the Liberty roundabout which is very close to its destination, Qaddafi Stadium. The weapons that the criminals had at their disposal including rocket launchers and grenades in huge quantity showed that these beasts were given the task to wipe out the entire Lankan Team to write a new international history with the blood of Sri Lankan stars. But luckily things did not go as being planned by the terrorists and their backers as the entire team had a narrow escape, but not before seeing the death from a very close. Once more Pakistan emerged in the world headlines as most dangerous and problematic place in the world. Our own experts and commentators were a step ahead in their criticism. Once again instead of taking a united stand on the fateful day as being done in India after Bombay attacks, what we witnessed back home was more of point scoring. In the process we painted a very bleak picture of the country as if it is heading for anarchy. This led other outsiders like Indians to declare Pakistan another Somalia heading for chaos. Nobody knows for sure what this tragedy meant for Pakistan's cricket. The initial reaction is quite disturbing for the cricket lovers. Already the ICC has announced that there would be no cricket in Pakistan in the foreseeable future. New Zealand was the first country to cancel its tour of Pakistan late this year, though ready to play at neutral venues while Pakistan's visit to Bangladesh is being rescheduled after fresh instructions from the ICC. Some experts even went to another extreme, suggesting that other teams could avoid playing with Pakistan at even neutral venues in the aftermath of attack on Sri Lankan team. All of a sudden cricket in this part of the world appears to be under dark cloud. Players engaged in IPL or ICL are a bit reluctant to go to India. Even the future of world cup that is to be jointly hosted by India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh seems a prospect pretty far-fetched now. How the PCB will wriggle out of this predicament and how it will regain the confidence of the cricketing nation is a bit difficult to predict at this stage. However Captain Younas Khan is making right noises, making appeals to ICC not to stop cricket in this part of the world as it will produce more suicide bombers shorn of all avenues of entertainment. It seems that Pakistan has been paying heavy price for its engagement in the War on Terror. Much depends upon when normalcy returns to our border areas and places afflicted with law and order problems. The government would have to put in place a strategy to root out this menace instead of keeping the threats lurking and alive for an indefinite time. What is hurting more to the people of Pakistan is the realization that a little more security of Sri Lankan Bus and its route could have averted this tragedy in the first place and saved the country from this stigma. After Bombay attacks and especially after intelligence reports it was the duty of our law enforcing agencies to provide extra security cover to the Sri Lankan Team, normally reserved for our VVIPs. We all know with how much difficulty Sri Lankan Team was persuaded to play in Pakistan in the face of opposition from India. Visit of Sri Lanka after Indian refusal was a slap on the face of our neighbour. In these circumstances, foolproof security arrangements were required. Even more than what we call as foolproof. The incident also highlighted how ill-equipped are our police including the elite police. The cops from elite police brought some laurel when they gave their lives to save the cricketers. But it showed that they are unequal to such tasks involving professional and trained criminals. It is be remember that Elite police is still better than other policemen serving at various police stations. It is time the government and the police high-ups imparted training to their boys. The local police have no idea how to take on the terrorists. During Pakistan's engagement in the War on Terror the police continued to take back seat while military and its agency enjoyed the lead role. They kept police away from the War on Terror and related crime. As such police have become irrelevant. In order to make it more relevant especially when the threat of terrorism is knocking at our urban centres, it is very important that we have an efficient and trained network of police well-versed with dealing with a situation we saw at the Liberty the other day. E-mail: nadeemsyed@nation.com.pk