Sports and terrorism cannot go hand in hand, says Vijay Goel

What’s the story?

The Asian Wrestling Championships, all set to be held in India, will not feature any grapplers from neighbouring nation Pakistan after the Indian High Commission denied visas to them. Wrestlers Muhammad Inam Butt and Muhammad Bilal will not feature in the tournament, which is scheduled to take place from May 10-14.

This comes in the wake of the mutilation of the bodies of two Indian soldiers by the Pakistan Army, to which this denial of visas comes as a direct response. Sports Minister Vijay Goel on Wednesday said that terrorism and sports cannot go hand-in-hand and that the entire world is aware of Pakistan’s connection with terrorism.

“Terrorism and sports cannot go hand-in-hand. Pakistan needs to understand it, They should stop cross-border terrorism in order to improve bilateral relationship. They should see that incidents of mutilation of bodies of Indian soldiers do not take place in the future,” said Goel.

In case you didn’t know...

There have been various instances of India boycotting Pakistan in the international sporting arena and this latest incident comes following the cease-fire violation in Jammu and Kashmir’s Krishna Ghati sector by Pakistan, where the bodies of two Indian soldiers were also mutilated in the attack.

The heart of the matter

Muhammad Arshad, the secretary of the PWF, was quoted as saying that they had applied for visas for the wrestlers and the accompanying officials 45 days ago. And it is not just wrestling where there have been attempts to isolate Pakistan globally.

The secretary of the Pakistan Hockey Federation Shahbaz Ahmed said that they were not included in the ongoing Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia due to the influence exerted by Indian officials. Earlier too, India had pulled from the Sultan Johor Cup due to the presence of the Pakistani team in the competition.

In the last few months, visas have been denied to Pakistani athletes for international events in other sports such as squash and kabaddi as well.

What’s next?

The Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) said that it will lodge a formal complaint with the international body United World Wrestling (UWW). They said that they would demand that India be removed from the right to host international events unless it guarantees that visas will be granted to all participants.

Author’s Take

It is a step in the right direction by the Indian authorities and is an important response considering the events of the last few days.