Security tightens for Indo-Pak Test after threat: officials by AFP

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Event:

Pakistan in India 2007/08

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DateLine: 25th November 2007

 

Security was tightened at the ongoing Test match between India and Pakistan here on Sunday after an e-mail threat targeting the visiting team was reported by media outlets, officials said.

 

An e-mail sent to a television channel on Saturday, a day after a series of blasts in three northern Indian cities killed 13 people and wounded at least 40, threatened the safety of the visiting Pakistani team.

 

"Don't think it's a joke. We will attack you if you play (a) Test match with India," said the e-mail, according to excerpts published in the Indian Express Sunday, the fourth day of the first Test. "Go back to your country."

 

Authorities were taking the threat seriously because a similar one was sent to lawyers around the same time as the blasts outside local courts in Uttar Pradesh state on Friday, said a Delhi and District Cricket Association official who did not want to be named.

 

Security, already extensive, had been tightened further on Sunday in wake of the e-mail, the official said.

 

Pakistan is scheduled to play India in a second match in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata starting November 30, with a third match set for Bangalore from December 8.

 

Earlier, an official from Indian cricket's regulatory body said the security situation was under control.

 

"I think adequate security arrangements have been made and proper cover has been provided to the players as well as the spectators," Board of Control for Cricket in India's vice president Rajeev Shukla told the Press Trust of India.

(Article: Copyright © 2007 AFP)