Mumbai, Oct. 19: Shiv Sena cadres stormed India's cricket headquarters here this morning, preventing talks with the Pakistani board to discuss revival of cricket ties and prompting the sport's world body to pull a Pakistani umpire out of the ongoing South Africa series in India.

Conflicting signals emerged this evening on the fate of the talks, with one senior Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) official saying they would be held in Delhi tomorrow and another saying they had been cancelled.

Sources suggested the confusion might be a tactic to keep options open and not reveal the possible venue and date before waters have been tested.

The Sena, the BJP's ruling partner in Maharashtra, opposes people-to-people contact with Pakistan until Islamabad stops sponsoring terror in India, and recently prevented Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali from performing in the state. However, India is to host the World T20 next March when Pakistan will play on Indian soil by right.

Unwilling to take chances, the International Cricket Council withdrew Pakistani umpire Aleem Dar from the remaining two India-South Africa ODIs in Chennai on Thursday and Mumbai on Sunday.

The attackers had "threatened to prevent the umpire from standing in the fifth ODI on Sunday", the world body said in a media release.

Former Pakistani cricketers Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar pulled out of their commentating assignments for the fifth ODI.

An international expression of concern came also from Australia on a day India saw several instances of hooliganism from Hindu radicals.

"We are concerned about reports an Australian citizen was threatened with violence and detained by police because of a tattoo," Australia's high commissioner said after suspected BJP members harassed a tourist in Bangalore over a goddess tattoo on his shin and the police forced him to write a letter of "apology".

In Mumbai, 50-odd Sena men had barged into the Wankhede Stadium with saffron and black flags and surrounded BCCI president Shashank Manohar in his office, shouting slogans against him and Pakistan Cricket Board chief Shaharyar Khan, a board source said.

"Thankfully, Khan had not come in till then," he said. The intruders left after board officials called senior Sena leaders and promised to cancel the meeting, another board source said. "We were terrified that it would lead to a Sudheendra Kulkarni kind of attack on Mr Manohar," he said. "But he spoke to them calmly and they left."

Last Monday, Sena supporters had blackened one-time BJP strategist Sudheendra Kulkarni's face in Mumbai after he refused to cancel a book launch by former Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri. "Maharashtra's event diary now needs daily ratification from Shiv Sainiks," a board official rued.

Ten persons were arrested but all of them have received bail against bonds of Rs 2,000 each.

Sena MP Sanjay Raut denied the party had gheraoed Manohar. Sena MLA Sunil Shinde said: "We told Manohar the BCCI should not resume ties with Pakistan as hundreds of innocent Mumbai citizens had lost their lives in the 26/11 terror attacks."

Sena ally BJP condemned the "hooliganism" while the Congress called it "abominable". Pakistan's Punjab provincial assembly demanded the UN declare the Sena a "terrorist organisation", PTI reported.

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted an offer: "Cricket Board welcome to meet in Kolkata."

But PTI quoted board honcho Rajeev Shukla as saying the talks would be held in Delhi tomorrow: "In no way, the dialogue will be stopped."

Board secretary Anurag Thakur, however, said the talks had been cancelled.

Although the Sena is based in Maharashtra, it had managed to dig up the Ferozeshah Kotla pitch in Delhi in January 1999, forcing a Test against Pakistan to be shifted to Chennai. However, the next test, scheduled originally in Chennai, was played in Delhi.

Today's meeting was to explore the possibility of an India-Pakistan series of two Tests, five one-dayers and two T20 matches in the United Arab Emirates in December-January.

It was also meant to discuss whether Indian cricketers might play in the inaugural Pakistan Super League, a T20 tournament, in Dubai and Sharjah in February.

The BCCI had said the proposed series was subject to government clearance. India and Pakistan have not played each other in Tests since 2007 because of strained relations following the 26/11 attacks, although Pakistan did tour India for a short limited-overs series in 2012-13.

Khan, camping in Delhi with former journalist and Pakistan Super League chairman Najam Sethi, had arrived in Mumbai last evening at Manohar's invitation. The two Pakistanis had checked into the Trident Hotel, which had been ravaged by cross-border terrorists on November 26, 2008.

Khan and Sethi were about to leave for the board headquarters when the Sena stormed the office.

"We told them not to come. Later the BCCI president met them in the hotel," a board official said. Khan and Sethi returned to Delhi by the 6.30pm flight.

Board sources said the plan for the bilateral series had coalesced when Khan met Thakur on the sidelines of an International Cricket Council meeting last week in Dubai.

"Khan and Sethi came to India after receiving the go-ahead from Pakistan's national security adviser, Sartaj Aziz," a board official said.

Thakur, a BJP parliamentarian, condemned the Sena action: "In a democracy, you can protest on the streets but you can't barge into anyone's office, home or headquarters."

He added: "An India-Pakistan series will only take place when relations improve and the two governments start talking to each other again."

Thakur issued an appeal: "The World T20 will be staged in India in 2016. It's the responsibility of every Indian to ensure that every sports event held in the country passes off peacefully. We should also appreciate other teams if they play well against India."