Sri Lanka helps Interpol foil militant attack on World Cup

Interpol said on Thursday it had foiled a militant plot to carry out an attack during the cricket World Cup now being played across South Asia.

“Last week, through cooperation from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, we were able to identify, locate and arrest a terrorist,” head of the France-based international police agency, Ronald K. Noble, told reporters in Islamabad along with Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

He said the man with “criminal intentions”, whom he did not identify, was arrested on his way from the Pakistani port city of Karachi to the Maldives.

“Thanks to the cooperation of your country and other countries, we were able to make sure that the World Cup remains safe,” he said. Neither he nor Malik, gave further details.

Earlier this month, India issued an alert over a possible attack on the hugely popular tournament being played until April 2 in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

In 2009, gunmen attacked visiting Sri Lankan cricketers in the Pakistani city of Lahore, shattering a belief that the sport in the sub-continent enjoyed immunity of sorts against militancy.

Eight Pakistanis died in the attack and six members of the Sri Lanka team were injured.

Since then, Pakistan, one of the original four co-hosts of the World Cup, has not hosted an international cricket match.