ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry Wednesday revealed that India created a fake threat that prompted New Zealand to call off the Pakistan tour.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad along with Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, the minister said that a fake threat by someone claiming to be Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant Ehsanullah Ehsan stimulated the situation and the device used to send a threat to the New Zealand cricket team belonged to India.
A fake post was created under Ehsan’s name in August which told the New Zealand cricket board and government to not send the team to Pakistan as it would be “targeted”, he said.
He said that following this post, the bureau chief of The Sunday Guardian, Abhinandan Mishra, published an article claiming that the team may face a terror threat in Pakistan citing the fake post by Ehsan.
Pakistan-New Zealand series abandoned due to 'security alert'
According to its website, The Sunday Guardian was founded by politician MJ Akbar, who served as the minister for external affairs in the Modi-led BJP government till 2018.
“And interestingly, Abhinandan Mishra has strong links with former Afghanistan vice president Amrullah Saleh,” he added.
He said that on August 24, New Zealand opener Martin Guptill’s wife received an email threatening her husband from ID with the username “Tehreek-i-Labbaik”.
When we investigated further, we discovered some facts.
First, this email is not affiliated with any social media network and only one email had been generated from this account, he further said.
The minister added that the email was sent via ProtonMail, a secure service.
“The details of the emailare not available and we have requested Interpol to assist us and tell us how it was generated,” the minister said.
He said the New Zealand cricket team still came to Pakistan.
NZ must come clean about ‘security threat’
“As the interior minister said, the security we provided outnumbered the number of people in their forces,” he said.
Fawad said the Interior Ministry issued a detailed protocol programme for them and the teams began focusing on the practice sessions.
The New Zealand team participated in the practice sessions “without any issues,” he added.
Chaudhry said New Zealand Cricket (NZC) informed the PCB and Pakistani authorities at 10:30am on September 17 that the team has received information of a security threat from their government.
The information minister said that the New Zealand cricket team itself was not affected much by the threat as the environment at the ground and the hotel was secure.
He said PM Imran Khan had, despite being busy with official engagements in Dushanbe, phoned New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, requesting her not to abandon the tour at the last minute.
“She, however, said they [New Zealand government] had received a “critical threat” that their team would be attacked,” said the information minister.
He said that a day later, a second threatening email was sent to the New Zealand team using the ID, Hamza Afridi.
He said that when authorities probed the email, they discovered that it was sent from a device associated with India.
“It was sent using a virtual private network (VPN) so the location was shown as Singapore.”
He said that the same device had 13 other IDs, nearly all of which were Indian names.
“All IDs were made using the names of Indian actors and celebrities. Only the name Hamza Afridi is different to show that this email was generated from Pakistan.”
“His name was used deliberately to show that a terrorist threat is present in Pakistan.”
He said that the user of the particular device had been identified as Om Prakash Mishra from Maharashtra.
“The device used to send the threat to the New Zealand team belonged to India. A fake ID was used but it was sent from Maharashtra.”
The minister added that the Interior Ministry had registered a case and had requested Interpol for assistance and information on the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Proton Mail and the ID of Hamza Afridi.
He said that the West Indies team was travelling to Pakistan in December.
“A threat has already been issued to the team,” he said, adding that this was also issued via a Proton Mail account.
“This is unfortunate. We believe this is a campaign against international cricket. The International Cricket Council (ICC) and other bodies must take notice,” he said.
NZ cricket team flies out of Pakistan
He also urged the New Zealand government to share the specifics of the threat they had received.
He said that Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi — who is currently in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly — had also lodged a strong protest with New Zealand.
Commenting on England’s decision, Fawad said that British High Commissioner Christian Turner had made it clear that the United Kingdom government’s advisory for Pakistan was not being changed.
So if the government had no reservations, who was the English Cricket Board to cancel the tour?
He said they were giving lame excuses.
He said that he had asked Pakistan Television to evaluate the financial losses it had suffered.
“We are working on this and if our legal team permits, we will sue the ECB,” he said.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed said that if anyone thought Pakistan would be isolated from NZ’s tour cancellation, they were wrong.
Rasheed claimed that India used to use people from prison and trained them for terrorism in Pakistan.
He said peace was our stance and it would be established in the country.
He said Pakistan had played a significant to evacuate over 10,000 people from Afghanistan including Nato forces, the IMF, the World Bank personnel, and Americans.
He said Torkham and Chaman borders were functioning normally and more people were going to Afghanistan from Pakistan than those coming here.
Everything is peaceful. This is all a drama and the gloved hands behind this drama will be unsuccessful.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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