Pakistan begin India Test tour amid unprecedented security (23 January 1999)

23 January 1999

Pakistan begin India Test tour amid unprecedented security

AFP

GWALIOR, India, Jan 23 (AFP) - Pakistani cricketers began their first Test tour of India in 12 years here Saturday amid unprecedented security despite a last-minute withdrawal of a sabotage campaign by Hindu militants.

Some 13,000 security forces personnel in and around the ground dwarfed the 3, 000 spectators, who passed various check-points on adjoining roads before they gained entry to the fortified stadium.

Gun-toting commandos and sniffer dogs guarded the dressing rooms of the two teams, despite the withdrawal of threats by Hindu fundamentalists to sabotage the tour in protest against Pakistan's support for separatists in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Pakistani skipper Wasim Akram said his team had not experienced any problems due to the tight security.

"We have no problem about this security because the officials have tried their best to see that we are not stuck up in our rooms. We have been told by the Indian government that we will not be stopped from going out of the hotel," he told AFP.

However, he expressed dismay that a cricket match between the two countries, who have fought three wars and remain arch-foes, had been politicised.

"I am not angry, but disappointed. I have always believed that good neighbourliness and friendship between the two countries can be promoted through the game," he told the United News of India.

"As far as we are concerned, once we are on the cricket pitch, we switch onto the game and forget everything else."

Hindu militants belonging to the Shiv Sena party had dug up New Delhi pitch and vandalised the headqaurters of the governing body of Indian cricket in Bombay.

Bal Thackeray, chief of Shiv Sena, allied to the ruling Hindu nationalist government, called off the campaign under pressure shortly before the Pakistanis arrived in India on Thursday.

The sabotage campaign came under attack from all political parties and the opposition Congress party had demanded an "independent and impartial" probe.

Thackeray on Saturday continued his anti-Pakistan campaign and said the touring team was "most welcome for sight-seeing" in the capital New Delhi and would not be allowed to play in his western city of Bombay, capital of Maharashtra.

"No match between India and Pakistan will be allowed in Maharashtra," Thackeray, who turned 72 on Saturday said.

Opposition leader Sonia Gandhi slammed the Shiv Sena party and called them a "bunch of cowards" seeking to intimidate the common man through violence.

"Those in power in the state are nothing but a bunch of cowards who had gotten together evoking the name of the great (Hindu) warrior ... and are out to terrorise people.

"What (the) Maharashtra government is doing is not just a political issue but is related to the very soul of the nation. Every patriotic and peace-loving Indian should fight these forces," she told her Congress supporters.

However, the first day of the match started off peacefully with Pakistan denting India's confidence ahead of next week's Test series tour as batsmen Yousuf Youhanna made 124 and Inzamam-ul Haq an aggressive 98 not out.

Tourists shrugged off the tight security and an inauspicious start to knock up 334-6 declared and then reduced India A to 63-2 in the three-day tour opener at the Roop Singh stadium here.

The Pakistani captain won the first round as both Indian opening batsmen, selected for the first Test starting at Madras on January 28, failed to survive his torrid opening spell.

The Pakistanis appeared affected more by lack of match practice than the stifling security, as veteran opener Saeed Anwar departed off the second ball of the match and his partner Wajahatullah Wasti also failed to score.

Source :: AFP