Security tightened for Sri Lankan cricket team amid rising tensions in Pakistan

Rawalpindi: Security has been heightened for the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team following a recent militant attack in Pakistan.

According to sources, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman and Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi personally met Sri Lankan officials, assuring them of “fool-proof” security arrangements. The Pakistan Army and paramilitary Rangers have been deployed to monitor safety measures for the visiting players and officials.

Pakistan has once again accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of allowing the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to use its territory to launch terror attacks. Relations between the two neighbours have been tense since peace talks in Doha collapsed.

The security alert comes days after a suicide bombing outside a judicial complex in Islamabad killed 12 people and injured several others. In another incident in Wana, security forces foiled a terror attack on the Wana Cadet College, safely evacuating around 300 students. Federal Information Minister Ata Tarar said the swift response prevented what could have been a tragedy on the scale of the 2018 Peshawar school attack.

Memories of past incidents continue to haunt Pakistan’s cricketing community. In 2009, TTP terrorists attacked the Sri Lankan team bus near Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium, halting international cricket in Pakistan for nearly a decade. More recently, in 2021, New Zealand abruptly cancelled a white-ball series in Rawalpindi after receiving credible intelligence about a potential terror threat.

Naqvi’s visit to the stadium was seen as an effort to reassure Sri Lanka of Pakistan’s commitment to player safety. The visiting side will play three ODIs in Rawalpindi before participating in a T20 tri-series featuring Zimbabwe from November 17 to 29.