Olympic field hockey champions Australia have pulled out of the Champions Trophy to be held in Pakistan in December citing security fears, the Pakistan Hockey Federation said on Monday.
"They have conveyed us that they will not be coming and have cited the baseless security fears, which is not only disappointing but disturbing for us," federation secretary Brigadier Musarratullah Khan stated.
The elite six-nation annual event is scheduled to be held from December 4-12 in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.
Three people were killed in a suicide bombing at a Lahore mosque on Sunday, the latest in a wave of attacks in Punjab province that has left 74 people dead this month.
The other four teams - Holland, Germany, New Zealand and Spain have confirmed their attendance, Khan said, adding "we do not have any fears of the event being shifted from Pakistan because security is not a problem".
Australia, who won their maiden Olympic title in Athens this year, had threatened to boycott the tournament last month saying the organisers had not responded to their concerns about possible terrorist attacks.
"I don't know what security assurances they needed from us. After Pakistan was cleared by an International Hockey Federation security team, we expected the Australians would come," said Khan.
Pakistan was originally to host the event in 2001 but security fears in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States forced the international body to relocate the tournament to Holland. Pakistan was later awarded the 2004 edition.
However, the Australians' pull out was good news for Pakistan's arch-rivals India, who will replace the Olympic champions despite finishing seventh in Athens, a placing which had ruled them out of the Champions Trophy.
When asked whether recent spate of terrorist activities in the Punjab province led to Australia's withdrawal, Khan replied: "We don't know but when we had given assurances and sent a security plan, their pull out is inexplicable."
Pakistan had sent a "foolproof" security plan to the FIH that it had passed on to the participating teams.
"Australian captain Brent Livermore had said that his team wanted to come and now we get this message," said the PHF secretary.
"We think Australia's pull out is an attempt to sabotage the event and since it's an FIH event the FIH need to take notice of a top team pulling out of their event."
Pakistani sport has suffered badly in the wake of the September 11 attacks and the US-led invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan, which sparked a wave of extremist and anti-Western attacks in the country.
Besides relocating the 2001 Champions Trophy hockey event, Pakistan also had to put off their 2001 home series against New Zealand for a year.
New Zealand's cricket team abruptly cancelled a tour when a bomb went off outside their hotel in Karachi, killing 14 people, in May 2002.
Australia's cricket team cancelled a tour shortly afterwards.
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