Pakistani militants take toll on sports

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PESHAWAR – The July 11 twin bombings in Kampala, Uganda, echo in the Qayyum Stadium gymnasium days afterward. Authorities have postponed the National Games twice due to security concerns after Taliban-linked violence.

“The militancy has caused irreparable damage to sports in the country”, weightlifter Rizwan Khan said. “An athlete’s career is not very long, and if you miss national- or international-level sporting competitions for so long, how can you recover the lost time? You can’t”.

Khan has worked out for months in preparation for the National Games, now scheduled for December 2010. They originally were scheduled for November 2009. “I am training very hard to win the gold medal”, he said after attempting to hoist 90kg.

The Kampala bombings killed more than 70. All were soccer fans watching the Spain-Netherlands final. The al-Qaeda-inspired Al Shehab militant group in Somalia claimed responsibility.

Taliban-linked militancy has devastated Pakistani sports since it spread beyond the Waziristan borders in 2007. The attacks have turned Pakistan into an athletic no-man’s-land, since no foreign team is willing to play in Pakistan.

Teams also find it nearly impossible to hire foreign coaches in this situation. Pakistan Judo Federation officials are trying to decide how to prepare for next year’s South Asian judo competitions in Pakistan without a foreign coach.

“No foreign coach is ready to come for fears of likely attacks from the militants”, said Muhammad Masood, secretary-general of the federation.

“We have sent invitations to all the South Asian teams”, he asaid. “They all say they will come, but at the same time they frequently ask about the security situation”.

Foreign athletic teams have a long list of terrorist attacks on Pakistani sporting events to consider. Several volleyball players were among over 100 killed January 1 when a suicide bomber detonated his sport utility vehicle in Lakki Marwat during a match.

Sri Lankan cricketers barely escaped death when gunmen opened fire on their bus in Lahore in broad daylight March 3, 2009. Six policemen died while fending off the attack. The Sri Lankans called off their tour.

Peshawar barely escaped mass bloodshed November 11, 2008, when a suicide bomber took four lives outside the Qayyum Stadium. Had he been able to breach the gate, organisers said, the death toll could have been much higher, since fans had packed the stadium to watch the closing ceremony of the 3rd Inter-Provincial Games.

Athletes, fans and organisers alike have been crushed by the National Games’ two postponements.

“We have been robbed again (of the games) by militants”, a tearful female badminton player said on TV when the Pakistani Olympic Association decided in March to postpone the Games a second time. The long delay has deprived residents of Peshawar and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of a chance to showcase the provincial capital.

“Sports mean peace. Attacks on sporting tournaments by militants show that their hearts are turned against peace”, said Zulfiqar Ali Butt, secretary-general of the National Games-hosting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Olympic Association. “We spread peace through sports. … We will definitely hold the Games one day”.

Pakistani sports will need years to recover, Waqar Maroof, Peshawar-based sports promoter, said.

“We may recover from economic losses, but recovering from sporting losses will take years after we put down the militancy permanently”, he told Central Asia Online. “We don’t know yet how long the militancy will continue to affect sports nationwide”.

Tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan generally have few sporting facilities. Those that do exist, tribal journalists say, now serve various purposes unrelated to sports or stand idle. Stadiums in Khar and Miranshah, for example, have sat empty for years.

“There has been no single sporting activity at either facility for the last several years”, the journalists told Central Asia Online.