Pak claims threatening email was sent to New Zealand cricket team from India
Islamabad, Sep 22: Pakistan on Wednesday alleged that a threatening email was sent to the New Zealand cricket squad from India, which prompted the Kiwis to call off a tour of the country.
The Kiwis called off their first tour of Pakistan after 18 years last Friday due to a security threat to the team, followed by a decision by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Monday to cancel a bilateral series scheduled for next month in Pakistan.
Pakistan has been claiming that India was behind some of the terror attacks in the country recently. India has dismissed these claims as "baseless propaganda" and asked Islamabad to take "credible and verifiable" action against terrorism emanating from its soil instead.
"It is not new for Pakistan to engage in baseless propaganda against India. Pakistan would do well to expend the same effort in setting its own house in order and taking credible and verifiable action against terrorism emanating from its soil and terrorists who have found safe sanctuaries there," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in July.
"The international community is well aware of Pakistan's credentials when it comes to terrorism. This is acknowledged by none other than its own leadership, which continues to glorify terrorists like Osama Bin Laden as 'martyrs'," he said.
Speaking at a press conference alongside Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed here on Wednesday, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that a fake post was created in August under Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan militant Ehsanullah Ehsan's name which told the New Zealand cricket board and government to refrain from sending the team to Pakistan as it would be "targeted".
Despite this, the New Zealand cricket team travelled to Pakistan. However, on the day of the first match New Zealand officials said that their government had concerns of a credible threat and cancelled the tour, Chaudhry said.
"Pakistan Cricket Board officials, the interior ministry security team, everyone went to them and asked them to share the threat ... [but] they were as clueless as us," he was quoted as saying by Dawn News.
He said that a day later, a second threatening email was sent to the New Zealand team using the ID, Hamza Afridi.
He claimed that investigating authorities discovered that the email was sent from a device associated with India.
"It was sent using a virtual private network (VPN) so the location was shown as Singapore," he claimed.
He said that the same device had 13 other IDs, nearly all of which were Indian names.
"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," he claimed.
He said that the interior ministry had registered a case and had requested Interpol for assistance and information on the Tehreek-i-Labbaik ProtonMail and the ID of Hamza Afridi.
He said that the West Indies team was travelling to Pakistan in December. "A threat has already been issued to the team," he claimed, adding that this was also issued via a ProtonMail account.
"This is unfortunate. We believe this is a campaign against international cricket. The International Cricket Council (ICC) and other bodies must take notice," he said.
On Tuesday, Chaudhry had claimed that his country was paying a price for saying no to the US on allowing American military bases on its soil.
Commenting on England's decision to cancel their tour, Chaudhry said that British High Commissioner Christian Turner had made it clear that the United Kingdom government's advisory for Pakistan was not being changed.
"So if the government has no reservations, who is the English Cricket Board [to cancel the tour]? To claim that players are tired is a shoddy excuse," he said.
He said that PCB chairman Rameez Raja, foreign ministry and Interior ministry would take up the issue at all concerned forums and Pakistan Television would evaluate the financial losses.
"We are working on this and if our legal team permits, we will sue the ECB," he said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
3 US troops killed, 5 seriously wounded during Iran attacks, military says
Washington (AP): Three American service members have been killed and five others seriously wounded during the US attacks on Iran, the military said Sunday, marking the first American casualties in a major offensive that has sparked retaliation from the Islamic Republic.
US Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, announced the deaths in a post on X but did not say when and where they occurred. The statement said “several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions” and were going to return to duty.
Central Command described the situation “as fluid” and said it would withhold the identities of the service members who were killed for 24 hours after their families were notified.
The US military also denied Iranian claims that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier was struck with ballistic missiles, saying on X that the “missiles launched didn't even come close.”
President Donald Trump had warned that American troops could be killed or injured in the operation.
“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties,” the Republican president said in a video address released early Saturday. “That often happens in war. But we're doing this not for now. We're doing this for the future.”
Following the US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other leaders, Iran's counterattacks have struck US bases in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has threatened to launch its “most intense offensive operation” ever targeting Israeli and American military installations.
Before the strikes, Trump had built up the largest US military presence in the Middle East in decades. The arrival of the Lincoln and three accompanying guided-missile destroyers at the end of January bolstered the number of warships in the region.
The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and four accompanying destroyers later were dispatched from the Caribbean Sea to head to the Middle East.
The Ford was part of the US raid in Venezuela that captured leader Nicolás Maduro, who was brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges. The operation in January claimed no American lives but left seven US troops with gunshot wounds and shrapnel-related injuries.
One of those injured received the Medal of Honor during Trump's State of the Union address last week. Trump said Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover piloted the lead CH-47 Chinook helicopter that descended on the “heavily protected military fortress” where Maduro was staying.
Trump has launched several military operations during his second term, including strikes on members of the Islamic State group in Syria in retaliation for an ambush attack that killed two US troops and an American civilian interpreter in December.
The US military has also struck IS forces in Nigeria, after Trump accused the West African country's government of failing to rein in the targeting of Christians.
