Pakistan tour of India to go ahead: Pakistan ambassador (15 January 1999)

15 Jan 1999

Pakistan tour of India to go ahead: Pakistan ambassador

AFP

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.