Pakistan U17 wrestling team's hopes of competing in the annual Cadet Asian Wrestling Championship were dashed after the Indian High Commission denied them visas for the New Delhi event, DawnNews reported.
The Cadet Asian Wrestling championship will be held from June 11-14, with more than 20 countries taking part in the tournament
Besides hosts India, wrestling powerhouses such as Iran, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Japan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, North and South Korea will be vying for top honours during the four-day long competition. But it seems now that Pakistan will be left out of one more sporting event in India.
The development comes just days after foreign ministries in both countries were embroiled in a verbals over the non-issuance of visas to official missions.
According to the Indian authorities, however, the Pakistani team has been the denied visas because “they failed to submit their paperwork on time.”
An official of the Pakistan Wrestling Federation, though, responded by claiming that the India-bound squad had sent in “all required documents on time and that their applications were sitting with the Indian High Commission for days.
With Cadet Asian Wrestling Championship set to begin in two days, it remains to be seen whether the issue will be resolved in time for Pakistan to able to compete in the event.
