Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry, on Wednesday, claimed that the device used to threaten the New Zealand cricket team was being controlled by India.
Chaudhry, accompanied by the Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed, revealed this in a press conference held to brief media on the withdrawal of the New Zealand cricket team from the limited-overs series in Pakistan.
“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 user of the particular device had been identified as Omprakash Mishra from Maharashtra.
He further added that “his name was used deliberately to show that a terrorist threat is present in Pakistan,” and “whole threat was primarily generated from India.”
Fawad Chaudhry briefed the media persons about the stringent security measures provided to the Kiwis, their withdrawal from ODI, events of threats, and its links with India. The information minister mentioned Pakistan was going through a hybrid war and shared some solid proofs to support his claim.
He also called on 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.
“We hope that they will share their stance,” hoped Chaudhry.
Timeline of Events:
The Information minister also shared a timeline of events leading to the withdrawal of the New Zealand cricket team from the series.
- August 19 – A fake post by someone claiming to be Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant Ehsanullah Ehsan was shared on FB, warning the New Zealand cricket team against touring Pakistan.
- August 21 -The bureau chief of The Sunday Guardian, Abhinandan Mishra, published an article claiming that the team may face a terror threat in Pakistan referring to the fake post by Ehsan. Mishra was found to be in contact with Amrullah Saleh, ex Afghan Vice President.
- August 24 – New Zealand opener Martin Guptill’s wife received an email threatening her husband from ID with the username “Tehreek-i-Labbaik”, the email was sent via ProtonMail, a secure service.
- September 12 – Despite all these threats, the tour was not cancelled and NZ Cricket Team arrived Pakistan on 11th September and remaining T-20 team members reached on Sept 12, 2021.
- September 13-16 – Practice sessions took place in a peaceful environment on September 13, 14 and 16 without any threat alert reported.
- Sept 17 – NZ government expressed concern over reported credible threat and cancelled the tour unilaterally, without sharing the details of the said threat.
- Sept 18 – After the cancellation of tour, a second threatening email was sent to the New Zealand team using the ID, Hamza Afridi. The email was sent through a device getting operated from India using a virtual private network (VPN) so the location was shown as Singapore.
