NEW DELHI: India’s scheduled tour of Pakistan next month was called off on government advice yesterday following last month’s Mumbai terrorist attacks.
The decision, announced in Parliament by Sports Minister M.S. Gill, confirmed fears that the visit would be canceled after the attacks, which killed scores of people. Indian authorities say the attacks were committed by militants from Pakistan.
India had been due to play three Tests, five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 international between Jan. 8 and Feb. 19.
“Government of India has advised the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that the Indian team’s cricket tour of Pakistan is not feasible in the prevailing circumstances,” BCCI’s chief administrator, Ratnakar Shetty, said in a statement.
It will be the third major tour cancellation of Pakistan this year on security grounds. Australia pulled out of its scheduled visit, while the International Cricket Council also postponed the Champions Trophy one-day tournament.
The Indian announcement came on the day Pakistan’s foreign minister said a militant leader, who is one of the men most wanted by India, is not in the custody of Pakistani authorities and is at large.
Maulana Masood Azhar is leader of the Jaish-e-Mohammad group that for years has battled Indian security forces in its part of the divided Kashmir region. India blamed the group, along with another militant organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba, for a 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament.
A Pakistani intelligence official told Reuters this month that Azhar had been detained as part of a crackdown that Pakistani authorities launched after the attacks on Mumbai. But Pakistan’s top diplomat in New Delhi was reported as saying Azhar was not being held in Pakistan. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi sowed confusion when he told Pakistan’s Dawn Television late Wednesday that Azhar was in custody.
However, Qureshi said yesterday he had been mistaken when he had told Dawn Azhar was in custody. “That’s not right. Other people have been detained but Mr. Masood Azhar is at large. We have no knowledge of his whereabouts,” Qureshi told Reuters.
Tension has been simmering between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors since the Mumbai attacks, and India has put on hold their nearly five-year-old peace process.
