The Bangladesh government has approved its shooters to travel to India for next month’s Asian Rifle and Pistol Championships, days after refusing to send its national cricket team to the country for the T20 World Cup due to security concerns.
The T20 tournament will be held across India and Sri Lanka from February 7 to March 8. The shooting event is scheduled at the Dr Karni Singh Range from February 2 to 14, with 17 countries sending more than 300 shooters.
Bangladesh will field two rifle shooters competing in a total of three events. There had been speculation that Bangladesh might also withdraw its shooting team over “security concerns” after pulling out of the cricket tournament.
However, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) confirmed to PTI on Wednesday that the players from the neighbouring country will participate.
“So far there is no news that the Bangladesh team is not coming. Their team is coming, no doubt about it,” said NRAI secretary Rajiv Bhatia.
“We at NRAI are in regular touch with them (Bangladesh federation officials). The Ministry of External Affairs has given its clearance and we have forwarded it to the (Indian) embassy for visa process,” added Bhatia.
Bangladesh will be represented by 21-year-old women’s rifle shooter Arefin Shaira and 26-year-old Olympian Md Robiul Islam. The two 10m air rifle shooters will compete in the individual events before teaming up for the mixed team competition.
A report in Dhaka’s Daily Sun on Wednesday stated that the Bangladesh government had approved the shooting team’s tour of India.
“The Youth and Sports Ministry issued the official government order (GO) on Wednesday, clearing the team to compete in the championship scheduled to take place from February 2 to 14. The decision comes despite Bangladesh cancelling the national cricket team’s tour of India for the T20 World Cup earlier due to security concerns,” the report said.
According to the report, the Bangladesh government believes the shooting championship will “not pose significant security risks, as the competition is set to be held indoors at a secured venue (Karni Singh Range)”.
The uncertainty arose after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) refused to let its team travel to India for the World Cup, citing security concerns in the wake of Mustafizur Rahman’s ouster from the Indian Premier League.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed that Scotland has replaced Bangladesh in the tournament, saying the “difficult decision” was taken since it was not feasible to meet BCB’s request to shift their matches to Sri Lanka so close to the tournament.
The ICC maintained that there was no verifiable security threat to the Bangladesh national team, officials, or supporters in India and it was not appropriate to amend the published event schedule.