Pakistan wrestlers denied visa for Asian C’ship, claims PWF

The Pakistan Wrestling Federation will protest and complain to the world body to stop international events from being held in India.

Asian Wrestling Championship is scheduled to be held in New Delhi from May 10 to May 14.

Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) on Wednesday claimed its national team has been denied visa by the Indian High Commission for the upcoming Asian Championship scheduled to be held in New Delhi from May 10 to May 14.

The Indian High Commission had informed the federation that the visa applications of their players and officials for their participation in the five-day Asian Championship had been rejected, Muhammad Arshad, the PWF secretary, has said. “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 said.

A few days ago, the Pakistan Squash Federation claimed the Indian High Commission had not issued visas for the Asian Individual Squash Championship in Chennai while last December the Pakistan junior hockey team was also not issued visas for the FIH Junior World Cup in Lucknow.

Arshad said the PWF will protest and complain to the world body 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.