E-Paper
Terror threat to Worlds allayed
The mood was subdued on Saturday with players from various teams inquiring about the possible terror threat to the World Badminton Championship.
The mood was subdued on Saturday with players from various teams inquiring about the possible terror threat to the World Badminton Championship.
Reports of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) targetting the event, that gets underway on Monday, had emerged on Friday after Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials briefed the organisers on security concerns.
But despite the concern, players went about with their training at the Gachibowli Stadium and Pullela Gopi Chand Academy. The security blanket was non-existent and there was little evidence to show that security forces were expecting an untoward incident.
While most teams refused to react in the absence of credible information from official sources, a support staff of the English team said the players had contacted the embassy to get details and follow any directive issued by it.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner Prabhakar Reddy held a press conference in the evening to clarify that there was no tournament-specific threat input from the IB.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram too issued a statement in Delhi allaying fears of any threat to the tournament.
"The alert in Hyderabad was based on information shared with the state police in a routine manner. There is no specific information that points to any imminent threat to the badminton championship," he said.
"I am satisfied that the Championship will take place in complete security. No one need to have any apprehensions on this score," Chidambaram said in the statement.
