KARACHI: Pakistan laid on heavy security on Saturday for a boxing tournament, the country’s first international sporting event since militants attacked the Sri Lanka cricket team’s bus last March.
Spectators were barred from the Benazir Bhutto international boxing tournament and some 3,000 police and paramilitary personnel guarded the venue in the congested Kharadar area of Karachi.
The tournament began a day after a suicide bomber killed at least 90 people at a local volleyball match in northwest Pakistan, in a village opposed to Al-Qaeda-linked Taleban insurgents.
“We are taking extra precautions because this is our first international sporting event for a long time,” said Akram Khan, the secretary of the Pakistan Amateur Boxing Federation.
“We have not allowed entry of the general public into the sports complex but we have set up a giant screen for them outside the venue in a football ground so they can enjoy the boxing bouts.”
Boxers from 18 countries, including India and China, were taking part in the tournament at the sports complex named after Bhutto, the assassinated former Pakistan prime minister.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani had been due to open the event but federal sports minister Mir Ejaz Hussain Jakhrani took his place and said the premier had been kept away by a busy schedule.
Police and paramilitary troops were positioned on the roofs of nearby houses and on the roads leading to the venue, which were barred to public transport.
A large crowd of people watching the screen cheered loudly as Indian Sanjay Singh fought his bout against an Uzbekistan boxer.
Organizers had put up a prize fund of $60,000 for the boxers.
