Afghanistan pulls out of cricket series after it says Pakistan air strike killed local players

BBC:

Afghanistan has pulled out of an upcoming cricket series after three players in a local tournament were killed in an air strike it blamed Pakistan for.

The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) said it would withdraw from November’s tri-nation T20 series out of respect for the dead. The three did not play for the national team.

The strike hit a home in Urgon district in Paktika province, where the players were eating dinner after a match, witnesses and local officials told the BBC.

Eight people were killed, the ACB said. Pakistan said the strike hit militants and denied targeting civilians.

The ACB named the three players who were killed as Kabeer Agha, Sibghatullah and Haroon, calling their deaths “a great loss for Afghanistan’s sports community, its athletes, and the cricketing family”.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) said it was “deeply saddened and appalled” by the “tragic deaths of three young and promising Afghan cricketers” in an air strike that also “claimed the lives of several civilians”.

“The ICC stands in solidarity with the Afghanistan Cricket Board and echoes their grief,” it said in a statement, adding that it “strongly condemns this act of violence”.

The attack came hours after a temporary truce between Afghanistan and Pakistan was due to expire following days of deadly clashes on the border between the two nations. Dozens of casualties have been reported.

Pakistan said it had targeted Afghan militants in the air strike and that at least 70 combatants had been killed.

Pakistan’s Minister of Information Attaullah Tarar said claims that the attack targeted civilians are “false and meant to generate support for terrorist groups operating from inside Afghanistan”.

He rejected the ICC’s “selective, biased and premature comment”, adding it had not cited any “independent verification to substantiate these claims”.