KARACHI, Nov 23: While condemning Saturday night’s incident when three firecrackers exploded in the vicinity of the National Hockey Stadium creating panic and confusion among the people gathered there, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) President Qasim Zia and Secretary Asif Bajwa have called it a most unfortunate act of cowardice.

Even though the National Hockey Stadium which at the time was holding the festival hockey match between Pakistan’s junior and senior teams, which incidentally the senior team won 3-2, was not the target, it is still a coincidence that the recent blast outside Peshawar’s Qayyum Stadium during the Inter-provicial Youth Games and this one happened on the day of the two festival matches being played in place of the cancelled five-Test junior hockey series against India.

When contacted for his reaction, Secretary Bajwa, who was heading to Los Angeles late on Sunday night for the FIH Congress meeting, said that it was to be his primary aim at the meeting to convince the federation and its 128 members that Pakistan is safe for holding international tournaments but the incidents are going to make his work rather challenging.

“This is not good,” he said, “But not just for hockey. It carries repercussions for the entire Pakistani sports scene. Sports after all happen to be the best medium to give the world the message that life here is normal.

“Still we are committed to do whatever is needed to convince foreign teams to give Pakistan a chance. Tournaments are important for uplifting the standard of hockey here.”

The other things on Bajwa’s agenda at the FIH meeting besides attending the FIH elections is to get approval for holding an annual eight-nation tournament named after Benazir Bhutto, the slain former prime minister of Pakistan as well as getting the Pakistan-India series revived.

“We would also be discussing the matter with Aslam Sher Khan and Suresh Kalmadi of the Indian Hockey Federation who are also attending the Congress,” he said.

When asked if he would raise the issue of India’s cancelling the junior series at the eleventh hour, Bajwa said: “The FIH actually doesn’t interfere in bilateral affairs, but yes, we too need to plead our case. We want the FIH to look into the matter and also suggest some kind of penalty in such kind of cases just to prevent it from happening in the future.”

Meanwhile, PHF President Qasim Zia while giving his reaction to Dawn, said: “It is difficult to imagine an enemy of sports? After all, it is a positive activity giving rise to healthy minds.

“We are a brave nation prepared to take on any challenge,” he said while keeping an optimistic outlook.

When asked if the PHF had really given up all hope of holding international tournaments on home soil when they say that they are even prepared to play on neutral venues, Qasim said: “Well, what else can we do when no team is willing to come here?” The PHF president will join Asif Bajwa in Los Angeles on the 26th.