NEW DELHI – After licking dust at the international diplomatic level, India has hurt itself even in the sports field in the shape of sanctions by International Olympic Committee (IOC) after two Pakistani shooters were denied with visas to attend a World Cup event amid tensions over the Pulwama attack.
The IOC on Friday decided to suspend all discussions with India regarding the hosting of global sporting events in the future after the Indian authorities blocked Pakistani shooters to take part in the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) World Cup in New Delhi.
The world body has also decided to withdraw the Olympic qualification status for the men’s 25m rapid fire event from the ISSF World Cup.
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Two Pakistani shooters, G.M. Bashir and Khalil Ahmed along with their manager, were scheduled to take part in the event but couldn’t reach the Indian capital city for Wednesday’s eve-of-contest formalities.
After the incident, the IOC executive board meeting in Switzerland on Thursday said in a statement that “the IOC restricted the withdrawal of recognition as an Olympic qualification event to the 25m rapid fire pistol competition in which the two Pakistani athletes were supposed to participate.”
This happened in the interest of the other 500 athletes from 61 countries participating in the other events who are already in India for their competition, the IOC statement added.
The Olympic body said that India will not be allowed to organise any Olympics-related events in the future, till they provide written assurance from the government that they will follow the Olympic charter.
Earlier, the ISSF had already warned India of consequences. “The ISSF World Cup in New Delhi faces an urgent situation as Pakistani athletes cannot get entry visas to participate in the competition,” it said in a statement.
India, which has expressed a strong interest in hosting the 2032 Olympics and 2030 Asian Games, faced IOC’s action after blocking Pakistan from taking part.
After the deadly attacks in Pulwama, which left more than 40 paramilitary Indian troops dead, New Delhi is facing constant shame and failure in a bid to isolate Pakistan in the international community.
