International Olympic Committee punishes India for denying visas to Pakistan shooters after Pulwama attack 

New Delhi: The International Olympic Committee decided to “suspend all discussions” with India, regarding hosting of global sporting events, after Pakistani shooters were not issued visas for the World Cup in New Delhi. Visas to the Pakistani shooters were denied in the wake of last week’s Pulwama terror attack, in which over 40 soldiers were killed.

The IOC also declared it will not allow India to organize any Olympic-related events in the future, unless written assurances are obtained from the government. The decision came hours after International Shooting Sport Federation president Vladimir Lisin’s announcement that all the allotted 16 Olympic quotas for the 2020 Games would be scrapped.

The IOC, in a statement, said, “The IOC restricted the withdrawal of recognition as an Olympic qualification event to the 25m rapid fire pistol competition in which the two Pakistani athletes were supposed to participate. This happened in the interest of the other 500 athletes from 61 countries participating in the other events who are already in India for their competition.”

“Since becoming aware of the issue and in spite of intense last-minute joint efforts by the IOC, the ISSF and the Indian National Olympic Committee (NOC), and discussions with the Indian government authorities, no solution has been found to allow the Pakistani delegation to enter India in time to compete,” he added.

Pakistan had applied for visas for two shooters – GM Bashir and Khalil Ahmed ­– in the rapid-fire category as the event in New Delhi also served as a qualifier for the 2020 Olympic Games.

The IOC came down heavily on India for going against the Olympic charter.

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