Eight Sri Lankan players set to return home from Pak due to safety concerns
Colombo (PTI): Eight Sri Lankan players, currently touring Pakistan with the national team for a three-match ODI series, are set to return home on Thursday after expressing concern over their safety following a deadly bomb blast in Islamabad that left 12 people dead and several injured, a SLC source said on Wednesday.
The development means the second ODI scheduled in Rawalpindi on Thursday will not happen. Pakistan had won the first ODI by six runs at the same venue on Tuesday.
The Sri Lankan team is also scheduled to play a triangular series, involving the hosts and Zimbabwe, after the three ODIs.
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) sources said replacements will be sent for those returning home.
Sources in SLC added that because of the proximity of Rawalpindi, where the ODIs are being played, to Islamabad was the reason the players expressed the desire to return home.
In 2009, the Sri Lankan cricket team bus was attacked by gunmen when it was on its way to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore for the second Test.
Several members of the Sri Lankan team, including Ajantha Mendis, Chaminda Vaas and captain Mahela Jayawardene, were injured while many Pakistani security personnel were killed.
Following the deadly attack, all foreign teams refrained from visiting Pakistan for over a decade and the country was compelled to use offshore venues in the Middle East to host its home matches.
Coincidentally it was Sri Lanka's tour of Pakistan in December 2019 which signalled the return of international cricket to the country.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
