India puts hockey series with Pakistan on hold
TNN & Agencies
NEW DELHI: The India-Pakistan hockey series, scheduled to be held in India from April 5, has been postponed due to the growing political tension between the two countries. This development came just a day after the Pakistan Parliament passed a resolution against the execution of Afzal Guru and two days after 5 CRPF jawans were killed in Srinagar on Wednesday.
The decision was taken at the behest of the government of India, Hockey India (HI) officials said. However, when asked, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid told reporters he had no knowledge of any cancellation.
Hockey India (HI) confirmed the postponement on Friday afternoon, saying it has been asked by the ministry of external affairs (MEA) to do so. “We got the permission from the sports ministry and the home ministry but MEA sent a fax to us on Thursday evening, asking us to postpone the series,” HI secretary Narinder Batra told TOI.
“We would have loved the series to take place but not at the cost of the respect and dignity of our nation,” he added.
“That is not my information. Nobody is going to ask me to cancel or not to cancel. But as far as I am concerned, I have no such information… may be some elements of the tournament have been shifted. But I don’t have any information that anything has been cancelled,” Khurshid told reporters. Despite Khurshid’s denial, government sources told TOI that the decision was taken at the top level.