Sports Minister Vijay Goel on Tuesday said “terrorism and sports cannot go together”, hours after the Pakistan Wrestling Federation claimed that they have been denied visas for the Asian Championship, which will be held in New Delhi between May 10 and 14.
Muhammad Arshad, the Pakistan federation’s secretary claimed that they had been informed by the Indian High Commission that visa applications of their players and officials for the five-day tournament had been rejected.
“Our wrestlers Muhammad Inam Butt and Muhammad Bilal were selected to represent the country in the regional event and we had applied for visas some 45 days ago,” Arshad was quoted as saying by PTI.
Arshad also urged the various sporting bodies across the world to stop international events from being held in India, “If they are going to do this with us all the time, then I think it is time our sports bodies and government also exerted pressure on world bodies to stop allocating events to India,” he said.
The Pakistan Squash Federation had earlier claimed the Indian High Commission had not issued visas for the Asian Individual Squash Championship in Chennai. In December 2016, the Pakistan Junior hockey team was also not issued visas for the Junior World Cup in Lucknow.
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