Pakistan minister finds India link to England, New Zealand’s cancelled tours

Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Wednesday claimed that the threat to New Zealand’s cricket team that prompted them to call off a tour of Pakistan came in an email that originated in India. This statement from the former Federal Minister for Science and Technology comes as England cancelled their tour to Pakistan days after New Zealand Cricket left the country without playing, citing a security threat. 

Chaudhry said the threat had come via an email. “This email was generated from India through a VPN showing the location of Singapore,” Chaudhry told reporters in Islamabad. 

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The minister further added that the West Indies team, due to arrive in December, had also been sent a threat. He said that the threat was fake.

Pakistan were due to host New Zealand after 18 years. The country did not host any international matches after the deadly 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore. 

Speaking at a press conference alongside Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed here, Chaudhry claimed that a fake post was created in August under Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan militant Ehsanullah Ehsan’s name which told the New Zealand cricket board and government to refrain from sending the team to Pakistan as it would be “targeted”.

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Despite this, the New Zealand cricket team travelled to Pakistan. However, on the day of the first match New Zealand officials said that their government had concerns of a credible threat and cancelled the tour, he said.

“Pakistan Cricket Board officials, the interior ministry security team, everyone went to them and asked them to share the threat … [but] they were as clueless as us,” he was quoted as saying by Dawn News.

He said that a day later, a second threatening email was sent to the New Zealand team using the ID, Hamza Afridi.

He said that the same device had 13 other IDs, nearly all of which were Indian names.

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“The device used to send the threat to the New Zealand team belonged to India. A fake ID was used but it was sent from Maharashtra,” he claimed.

He said that the interior ministry had registered a case and had requested Interpol for assistance and information on the Tehreek-i-Labbaik ProtonMail and the ID of Hamza Afridi.

“This is unfortunate. We believe this is a campaign against international cricket. The International Cricket Council (ICC) and other bodies must take notice,” he said.