Following the suicide attack in Islamabad, Pakistan’s interior ministry said on Thursday that the country’s military chief immediately intervened to save the home series against Sri Lanka.
Field Marshal Asim Munir arranged the meetings with Sri Lanka’s top officials after the touring Lankan cricketers threatened to withdraw from the series due to safety concerns, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told the Senate.
After the high-level interactions, Sri Lanka’s cricket body later announced that the team’s current tour of Pakistan will continue.
“Our field marshal spoke to their defence minister and secretary and convinced them and assured them fully of (providing) security,” Naqvi, who also serves as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief, said.
“Our interaction with them began, their board, players and everyone decided with great bravery to stay here.”
“They had many concerns, but we tried to allay all of those,” Naqvi said and revealed that Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the president of Sri Lanka, had also talked to the cricketers to persuade them to stay.
According to Naqvi, the cricketers were provided top-notch security.
“And now, the Pakistan Army, Rangers and Islamabad police together are managing their security, and we are providing them the same kind of protocol and security as they are our state guests.”
The Zimbabwean squad has arrived in Pakistan, he said, and the remaining games will take place in Rawalpindi.
Rawalpindi will be the only venue, and the series will now start on November 18 rather than November 17. The games were originally supposed to take place at the Gadaffi stadium in Lahore.
The crisis started on Tuesday after 12 people were killed in a suicide explosion in Islamabad. It happened right before the first ODI between Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Rawalpindi began.
The Lankan squad escaped a terrorist attack in 2009 when gunmen attacked the bus that was transporting them to the Gaddafi Cricket Stadium, killing two civilians and six Pakistani police officers and injuring six cricketers.
