Pakistan tour of India to go ahead: Pakistan ambassador
AFP
15 Jan 1999
NEW DELHI, Jan 15 (AFP) - Pakistan's first cricket tour of India in more
than a decade will go ahead, despite attempts by Hindu militants to have it
cancelled, Pakistan's ambassador in New Delhi said Friday.
``The Indian government has assured comprehensive security cover and we are
satisfied there will be no danger to our cricketers,'' Ambassador Ashraf
Jeghangir Khan told reporters.
``On that basis they will come to India,'' he said.
The tour has come under threat from the militant Hindu Shiv Sena party,
which has vowed to disrupt the games in protest at Pakistan's support for
Moslem rebels in the disputed region of Kashmir.
Shiv Sena activists have already caused the venue of the first Test due to
begin January 28 to be changed, after they dug up the pitch at the original
venue in New Delhi.
Khan's confirmation followed a pledge earlier Friday by Indian Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to prevent the militants holding the tour to
ransom.
``We won't allow them to disrupt the games,'' Vajpayee told a delegation of
top sportsmen seeking his guarantee the tour would go ahead.
Vajpayee made a personal appeal to the militants to halt their campaign.
``I say to them that you have protested. Now your purpose is solved and you
should do no further harm. If you really want to fight, you should go and fight
on the border instead of digging up pitches at night,'' he said.
The prime minister also urged the cricket-mad Indian public to put pressure
on the Shiv Sena.
``The public has to urge these people that matches, be they of cricket,
hockey or any other sport, should be played in their true spirit and should not
be disrupted.''
It would be the first Pakistan tour on Indian soil since 1987.
The tourists are scheduled to arrive here January 21 for a two-Test series,
the Asian Test championship opener against India and a triangular one-day
series also featuring Sri Lanka.
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