Pakistan Blames Politics as England and New Zealand Cricket Teams


“You will understand that we are not in a position to reveal more about the nature of the intelligence, other than to say that this is a direct threat and a credible threat,” Ardern said on Sunday. .

Officials in Pakistan asked their New Zealand colleagues for more information, saying they had not received any threats. A former spokesperson for the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, a banned terrorist group, said in a Facebook post ahead of the scheduled New Zealand game that the team may have been targeted by a different group.

Referring to the terrorist organization ISIS, Ehsanullah Ehsan said, “As far as I know, a global jihadist organization (IS) is looking for a major target in Pakistan.” It was not clear whether Ehsan Bey had knowledge of any planned attack, and his Facebook account was deleted shortly thereafter.

Tour cancellations were met with widespread anger and disappointment in Pakistan. “We were all so excited and couldn’t wait to watch the match at the stadium,” said Nawab Ahmed Alam, 41, who runs a cricket club in Islamabad, adding that he bought a ticket to watch the first match between Pakistan and New Zealand. . But now that the tours have been cancelled, cricket fans think that Pakistan has been pushed back 10 years.”

The cancellations are particularly frustrating for locals as teams from other countries such as Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and South Africa started visiting in 2015, raising hopes that things could return to normal.

“This is very unfortunate because spectators and fans want to see cricket heroes play in front of them against foreign teams on their own soil,” said Mr. Alam. “Excitement and joy were denied to the fans.”

Pakistani officials have claimed that the country’s security has greatly improved following a series of crackdowns on militant groups, most notably the Pakistani Taliban, which launched a bloody terrorist attack from 2007 to 2014.



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