NEW DELHI: The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) confirmed on Monday that the Pakistani shooting contingent of Mohammad Akhtar, Ghulam Bashir and the national coach Razi Ahmed have received visas to travel to the Indian capital city for the ISSF World Cup starting Wednesday.
“I got a call from the National Rifle Association of Pakistan (NRAP) who confirmed that their visas have been granted and their shooters will be booking their tickets shortly,” NRAI general secretary Rajiv Bhatia told IANS.
The development has ended media speculation that Pakistan could be denied participation for the marquee event due to the terror attacks in Kashmir last week, which took the lives of 42 CRPF soldiers.
It is worth noting that Bhatia had earlier pointed out that India would face sanctions from the International Olympic Committee in the event of the Pakistan team being denied participation at the World Cup.
The Shooting World Cup runs from Wednesday to through to February 28 at the Dr Karni Singh Range here. It is the first ISSF World Cup of 2019 and there are 16 quota places up for grabs for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
India are fielding a 23-member squad with 11 shooters in the non-competition Minimum Qualification Score category.
