The New Zealand team suddenly announced yesterday that they were returning from a tour of Pakistan, citing security threats. New Zealand and Pakistan were scheduled to meet in the first ODI of the three-match series in Rawalpindi yesterday. After enduring the shock, hair analysis is now going on.
New Zealand did not say what kind of security threat it was. Meanwhile, Pakistan claims that there is no concern about security. On the contrary, Pakistan is also analyzing whether anyone else is behind New Zealand’s decision. Following that analysis, the Pakistani media outlet The News International published an old story from an Indian newspaper a month ago. The news was written that there was a fear of a terrorist attack on the New Zealand team.
According to The News International, on August 21, the Indian newspaper The Sunday Guardian tried to cancel New Zealand’s visit to Pakistan. At the time, they wrote, the New Zealand cricket team’s tour of Pakistan, which is scheduled to take place next month (September), has raised fears of a terrorist attack. There is a strong possibility that a visiting terrorist group from one of the many terrorist groups in the region could launch an attack on the cricketers.
Ehsanullah Ehsan, a former spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, said Pakistan’s branch of IS (militant group Islamic State) was preparing to attack New Zealand players, The Sunday Guardian reported. However, Richard Book, manager of the New Zealand Cricket Board’s (NZC) public relations department, told the Sunday Guardian that New Zealand would follow the advice of an independent security adviser, according to Pakistan’s The News International.
After that, Pakistan’s The News International is looking at India’s conspiracy to cancel New Zealand’s visit to Pakistan. They wrote that a foreigner currently stationed in Islamabad had worked for India to cancel New Zealand’s visit to Pakistan. According to The News International, Shankar did this by spreading fake news about security to the New Zealand team.
The Pakistani newspaper has brought up the issue of The Sunday Guardian in India. They wrote that the New Zealand team came to Pakistan satisfied with the security situation. But then the Pakistani administration thinks that a foreign diplomat has conveyed the threat in an Indian newspaper to the people in charge of managing the New Zealand team in Pakistan, writes The News International.
The Pakistani administration has called the threat “just a rumor”. The Pakistani authorities have probably found out who did the work, the Pakistani newspaper wrote.
The News International claims that neither the ISI, the IB, nor the MI, nor any of Pakistan’s special intelligence agencies have reported any threat of an attack. The Special Branch only asked the authorities to tighten security on the occasion of Imam Hossain’s visit to Chehlam and the New Zealand team.
Security was as expected by the New Zealand team. But the diplomat may have instilled fear in the visitors by conveying fake security threats to the New Zealand team, The News International reported.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket Board has announced that the New Zealand team will leave Pakistan today.
