NEW DELHI: Indian tennis players want their Davis Cup tie against Pakistan moved away from Islamabad over safety fears, a top official said Tuesday.
India are scheduled to play the Asia/Oceania Group 1 tie in the Pakistani capital on September 14 and 15.
But tensions between the neighbors have grown since India revoked the special autonomy status of Kashmir, which the nuclear-armed rivals have fought over since gaining independence in 1947.
Pakistan has frozen diplomatic ties and halted travel between the two countries. The All India Tennis Association said it has sought a meeting with the International Tennis Federation to force a change of venue.
“Mahesh Bhupathi, the Indian captain, has spoken to me. It is very concerning for the players to participate under such circumstances. They are looking for a remedy to play elsewhere,” AITA secretary Hironmoy Chatterjee told AFP.
“We have told the ITF that the Indian ambassador has been sent back, diplomatic relations have been downgraded, airspace over Pakistan for Indian flights has been stopped, road and train connection is stalled.
The ITF said in a statement that it was satisfied with Pakistan’s security plan for the event.
“We are working closely with the host nation and independent expert security advisers — the ITF is satisfied with their current security assessment of the site and the security plan in place,” the world body said.
“The overall security risk rating for Pakistan has not changed, however, we will continue to monitor the situation closely with our advisers.”
On Monday, India’s sports minister Kiren Rijiju said the government would not prevent the team from playing the Davis Cup tie in Pakistan as it was not a bilateral series and was organized by a world body.
India cut bilateral cricket ties with Pakistan after deadly attacks in Mumbai in 2008 that authorities blamed on Pakistani militants, with just one limited-overs tour in 2012-13.
An Indian tennis team last played a Davis Cup tie in Pakistan in 1964, when they beat the hosts 4-0. Pakistan lost 3-2 when they played in Mumbai in 2006.
Until recently, Pakistan has been forced to host Davis Cup ties at neutral venues as teams refused to travel to the South Asian nation over security concerns.
India wants Pakistan Davis Cup tie moved over security fears
India wants Pakistan Davis Cup tie moved over security fears
- India are scheduled to play the Asia/Oceania Group 1 tie in the Pakistan on September 14 and 15
- Pakistan has frozen diplomatic ties and halted travel between the two countries after India’s August 5 move on Kashmir
Pakistan says Afghanistan has created conditions ‘similar to or worse than’ pre-9/11 attacks
- The statement followed a suicide blast at a mosque in Islamabad that killed over 30, injured 169
- Pakistan frequently accuses the Afghan Taliban of backing militants, an allegation denied by Kabul
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s president has warned that the Taliban’s government in Afghanistan has created conditions “similar to or worse than” those before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a sign of rising tensions with Kabul after last week’s mosque attack in Islamabad, which analysts said Monday highlights militants’ reach to the capital.
Asif Ali Zardari made the remarks while thanking the international community for condemning Friday’s suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque that killed 31 worshippers and wounded 169. Without directly blaming India, Zardari also said Pakistan’s eastern neighbor was “assisting the Taliban regime and threatening not only Pakistan but regional and global peace.”
In a statement issued Sunday, Zardari said Pakistan “takes strong exception to the situation in Afghanistan where the Taliban regime has created conditions similar to or worse than pre-9/11, when terror organizations posed threats to global peace.” He added that Pakistan had long maintained terrorism cannot be confronted by any single country in isolation.
The unusually strong comments were likely to irk Kabul and New Delhi, both of which have condemned the suicide attack claimed by Daesh (Islamic State) and have denied any involvement.
The previous Afghan Taliban government, which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, had been blamed for sheltering the Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden who was behind the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that killed more than 3,000 people in the United States. The Afghan Taliban also allowed Al-Qaeda to operate training camps within Afghanistan, despite international warnings. However, bin Laden was killed during a US commando operation in Pakistan in May 2011.
Last week, Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry and New Delhi, in separate statements, rejected the Pakistani allegations, saying Islamabad had irresponsibly linked them to the attack.
Pakistan frequently accuses the Afghan Taliban, who returned to power in August 2021 in Afghanistan, of backing militants including the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Both deny the accusations.
There was no immediate response from India or Afghanistan to Zardari’s latest allegations, which came after Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the bomber involved in the attack was a Pakistani and trained by Daesh in Afghanistan.
Naqvi said security forces had arrested four suspects, including an Afghan national accused of links to the militant group and of helping mastermind the attack. The detainees included the bomber’s mother and brother-in-law, according to officials who said investigations into the attack were still ongoing.
Pakistan has not shared full details about the involvement of the bomber’s family, however.
On Monday, Naqvi received telephone calls from his Italian counterpart Matteo Piantedosi and European Commissioner Magnus Brunner, who condemned the mosque attack. According to a government statement, Naqvi maintained that “Pakistan is a shield for the world against terrorism and emphasized that strong global-level measures are needed today to protect the world from terrorism”.
Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s former special representative for Afghanistan, said Zardari’s warning was “unambiguous: terrorism thrives where it is tolerated, facilitated, or used as a proxy.”
He wrote on X that “allowing terrorist groups to operate from Afghan soil and India’s use of proxies to destabilize Pakistan is a dangerous path with grave regional and global consequences.” Durrani added, “Peace demands responsibility, not denial.”
Another Islamabad-based analyst, Abdullah Khan, said the preliminary findings into the mosque bombing suggest the attack may reflect a pattern seen in some IS attacks involving close family networks. He said the IS affiliates have at times recruited entire families, pointing to past attacks in Pakistan and Indonesia.
Although Islamabad has seen fewer attacks than some other regions, Pakistan has experienced a recent rise in militant violence, much of it attributed to Baloch separatist groups and the TTP, which is separate from but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban.
Daesh’s regional affiliate, a major Taliban rival, has carried out attacks across Afghanistan.
