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The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) hierarchy is not happy with the timing of the disclosure made by Federal Minister for Information, Pervez Rasheed about an alleged foiled suicide bomb attack near the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore on Friday night.
Rasheed told Geo News channel that due to the bravery and vigilance of the policemen on duty the suicide bomber failed to penetrate the security cordon around the stadium where the second one-day international was taking place between Pakistan and Zimbabwe.
According to the minister, the attempted attack was foiled outside the outer security cordon and a kilometer away from the stadium.
He said the blast killed two persons including a police official.
Rasheed's disclosure caused embarrassment for not only the PCB but also the senior police officials who after the blasts had said they occurred due to an explosion in a power transformer close to the stadium.
Later a police spokesman said the blast occurred due to an explosion of a gas cylinder of a rickshaw near Kalma chowk. He said originally it was thought that the rickshaw had explosives fitted in it but investigations had shown it was a gas cylinder blast.
The Pakistani media also perhaps realizing the sensitivity of the moment didn't give much coverage to the incident and played up the police version until Rasheed spoke about it.
"It is so embarrassing and we fear now that all the hard work we put into making this tour possible could go waste. As the timing of the minister's statement was not right we wanted to talk about it after the Zimbabwe cricket team returned home on Monday," a reliable source in the board said.
He said PCB Chairman, Shaharyar Khan and senior member Najam Sethi had both been in touch with government officials on the incident that continued to cause confusion as the police till late night were sticking to their version of the blasts.