ANALYSTS' VIEW: Sri Lanka cricket team attacked in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Six Sri Lankan cricketers and their British assistant coach were wounded when gunmen attacked their bus as it drove under police escort on Tuesday to a stadium in the Pakistani city of Lahore.

Following are some comments from analysts on the wider implications of the attack:

M.J. GOHEL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OF UK-BASED ASIA-PACIFIC FOUNDATION THINK TANK

"This embarrasses the Pakistani government enormously. It was all too predictable. The aim was clearly to perpetrate mass casualties and mass horror.

"The worry is that it was known that an attack could take place. Pakistan has become a safe haven for terrorists. It is going to put a lot of people off investing in and visiting Pakistan.

It was a very soft target. So the team was meant to be extremely well-protected. How is it that gunmen could have penetrated the security, carried out the attack and then all escaped?"

ROBERT AYERS, SECURITY ANALYST AT BRITAIN'S ROYAL INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

"It did not appear to me that the attackers had an effective escape route. It appeared potentially a one-way mission.

"Also this is reasonably typical of attacks in the past that have coincided with high-profile events, in this case a sporting event, that attracts a large community of journalists so you amplify the publicity -- you have a built in news conference.

"Other examples are the 2005 London bombings that coincided with the Gleneagles summit, the 2004 Madrid attacks with the Spanish elections."

AHMED RASHID, AUTHOR OF 'DESCENT INTO CHAOS'

"I think this is a deliberate attempt to undermine the government at the time when there is huge political crisis in the country. And this is creating more chaos and obviously the country is in a very, very serious danger and instead of concentrating on the war against the extremists, the government is fighting other political parties.

"I certainly think it's the work of extremists. They are trying to undermine the state. They are trying to shake the stability of the state, demoralize the security forces. They are trying to create a vacuum of power in which eventually they can take over."

IKRAM SEHGAL, SECURITY ANALYST AND CHAIRMAN OF GROUP FOUR SECURICOR IN PAKISTAN

"The situation in Pakistan is bad but this is a one-off incident because it was very deliberately motivated and it had only one purpose, to ensure that sports events in Pakistan cannot take place.

"At the moment, Sri Lankans have very bravely come down to Pakistan during this time and obviously the idea was that the message be sent to the rest of the world that Pakistan is not a safe place to go to. I think that way they have succeeded."

(Reporting by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Alex Richardson)