ISLAMABAD: The administration in Pakistan’s Rawalpindi has taken “extensive measures” to provide security to players and citizens as the city gears up to host the remaining matches of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2024 tournament next month, state-run media reported on Thursday.
Pakistan’s eastern city of Rawalpindi will host PSL matches from March 2-10. PSL matches every year draw thousands of people to stadiums in Lahore, Multan, Karachi and Rawalpindi, where matches are usually held. The PSL also features apart from local cricket stars, international cricketers of renown.
The Rawalpindi administration has finalized a security plan ahead of the tournament’s matches, the Associate Press of Pakistan (APP) said in a report, amid a surge in militant attacks across the country.
“Under the security plan finalized for PSL matches, over 5,000 police personnel, including elite forces, would be deployed to provide foolproof security cover to the matches,” the APP said.
It said the security plan includes closing stations, managing traffic, and “strict surveillance” to ensure the safety of the cricketers, officials and spectators.
It said around 750 police officers would be tasked with managing the teams’ movement from the Islamabad airport across the districts of Attock and Rawalpindi.
“Snipers, along with police equipped with advanced security tools, would be stationed along critical routes and rooftops near the stadium,” the report said. “These measures are designed to ensure a secure environment for the event.”
It said Rwalpindi’s traffic police has also developed a traffic management plan to cope with the expected increase in vehicles during the matches.
Pakistani authorities have been wary of attacks targeting cricketers and cricket events, especially since 2009 when militants attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. The incident scared international teams from touring Pakistan, forcing the South Asian country to choose the UAE as its home ground for several years before international teams started touring the country again.
Pakistan has seen a surge in militant violence, especially in its western regions bordering Afghanistan, since November 2022 after a fragile truce between the state and the Pakistani Taliban broke down.
Pakistan’s Rawalpindi administration to deploy over 5,000 cops for next month’s PSL matches
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Pakistan’s Rawalpindi administration to deploy over 5,000 cops for next month’s PSL matches
- Pakistan’s eastern Rawalpindi city will host Pakistan Super League matches from March 2-10
- Snipers, police to be stationed along ‘critical routes’ and at rooftops near stadium says state media
UN says 270,000 Afghans have returned from Iran, Pakistan this year
- UNHCR says 110,000 Afghans returned from Iran while 160,000 returned from Pakistan since start of 2026
- Return numbers seem to have risen since Gulf war erupted on Feb. 28, says UNHCR official in Afghanistan
GENEVA: Some 270,000 Afghans have returned to their country from Pakistan and Iran so far this year, the UN said Tuesday, warning that the escalating Middle East war risked pushing the numbers higher.
UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, said that 110,000 Afghans had returned from Iran and another 160,000 had returned from Pakistan since the start of 2026.
And the numbers seem to have risen since the Middle East erupted on February 28, with the United States and Israel unleashing a barrage of strikes on Iran, and Tehran responding with drone and missile strikes on Israeli and US interests across the region.
Since then, there have been some 1,700 returns from Iran to Afghanistan each day, Arafat Jamal, UNHCR’s representative in Afghanistan, told reporters in Geneva.
Speaking from Islam Qala, on the Afghan-Iranian border, he said the situation there was “deceptively calm.”
“Returns are orderly but freighted with tension and apprehension,” he said, adding that with the hostilities elsewhere escalating, “I do fear there is more to come.”
“We are preparing for massive returns.”
He pointed out that Afghanistan was “facing the ramifications of what is happening with Iran,” while clashes have erupted along the Afghan border with Pakistan.
The new Middle East war, he warned, was “layering itself on top of an existing war on another frontier,” Jamal said.
UNHCR highlighted that the latest crises came after returns to Afghanistan had already been “exceptionally high” in recent years.
More than five million Afghans had returned from neighboring countries in the past two years, including 1.9 million returning from Iran last year alone.
Jamal warned that “many Afghan families are now facing cycles of displacement: first forced to flee Afghanistan, later displaced again inside Iran due to conflict, and now returning once more to Afghanistan.”
“And upon return in Afghanistan, the triply-displaced enter a spiral of precarity and uncertainty.”
Returns from Pakistan had meanwhile stabilized in recent weeks, as the main crossing point at Torkham remained closed due to the tensions there, Jamal said.
But he warned that “movements could increase sharply once the border reopens.”
UNHCR and the UN children’s agency UNICEF said Tuesday they were working to strengthen their capacity to operate at the borders and within Afghanistan.
But “given the scale of returns and the financial constraints facing humanitarian operations, additional support will be needed if arrivals increase,” UNHCR said, without specifying the amount needed.
