CHITRAL, Oct 10: The fun-filled weeklong Jashn-i-Chitral sports festival concluded here on Thursday.

The games played during the festival included polo, football, cricket, volleyball, tug-of-war, buzkashi, buddi dik, horse race, mountain race, paragliding, archery, stone throwing, donkey polo, cultural show, chess, marathon race and wresting.

The event was managed by the district administration and Chitral Scouts. During the inauguration the Chitral Scouts, police and border police of Chitral had presented the parade that followed a polo match, which attracted many visitors.

The Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had sponsored the festival.

This time Gilgit-Baltistan polo team recorded a convincing win over their rivals Chitral team. The teams also performed to the tunes of flute and traditional Gilgit polo band.

The major event of the area, Shandur Polo Festival, was cancelled this year due to floods which had damaged roads between Chitral and Gilgit. The event was first postponed and later cancelled due to bad weather conditions.

However, Jashn-i-Chitral provided an opportunity to the fans to see their favourite polo teams of Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan in action besides many other games.

MNAs Shehryar Afridi and Shehzada Iftikharuddin were the chief guests at the closing ceremony and distributed prizes among the winning teams and players. They suggested that such sporting events should be held frequently to promote sports and harmony.

TCKP managing director Tarik Jamil stated that following postponement of Shandur Polo Festival owing to floods it was decided to hold an event in Chitral.

He said that Jashn-i-Chitral was intended to promote tourism in the region.

Mr Jamil said that they had been taking steps for reviving and promoting indigenous games like tug of war, stone throwing, pool throwing and buz kushi.