This year's Shandur Polo Festival hands over the winner's title to Team Chitral who defeated Team Gilgit-Baltistan with 10-5 goals in the decider played in the world’s highest polo ground in the valley. The festival ran from July 7 to 9 this year.

Inspector General of Frontier Corps (IG FC) Major General Waseem Ashraf was the chief guest at the concluding ceremony.

Deputy Speaker Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly Jaffarullah, Minister for Tourism Gilgit-Baltistan Fidaullah, ambassadors of various countries, a large number of local and foreign tourists, former polo players and officials of Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (TCKP) were also present at the event.

Stringent security arrangements had been put in place during the three-day festival where hundreds of scouts and police from Chitral were deployed for the event.

Team Chitral dominated the match right from the beginning and scored one after another goal.

Teams from Chitral, Gilgit, Laspur and Ghizer participated in the event that has become a permanent feature of the annual sports calendar of Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; the corporation has allocated Rs40 million for the festival.

The sport has now gained international fame with thousands of visitors and tourists from downtown districts and foreign countries thronging Chitral every year to witness the grand gala.

Few of the many noteworthy segments of the event included: traditional dances of Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan coupled with a beautiful display of fire works at night, display of traditional collections of art by local artisans and skilled entrepreneurs and paragliding by paratroops of Special Services Group.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (r) Dost Mohammad Khan inaugurated the event and also announced Rs1 million, Rs0.7 million and Rs0.5 million for the first, second and third-place winners respectively on behalf of the provincial government.

IG FC Major General Waseem Ashraf gave away trophies and cash prizes to the winners and runner-up teams; the winning teams were awarded Rs100,000 and runner-up Rs90,000 cash.

In total, three matches were played in the day with Chitral’s teams winning them all against the teams of GB.

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