Indian broadcaster stops covering PSL after Pulwama attack

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D-Sport, the official Indian broadcaster for the Pakistan Super League (PSL) season four, and cricket news app Cricbuzz have suspended the coverage of the T20 league after the recent deadly attack targeting Indian security forces in occupied Kashmir’s Pulwama area.

On Thursday, at least 44 Indian paramilitary troops were killed in Indian-occupied Kashmir’s Pulwama area in the deadliest attack on security forces in the valley since 2002. The attack, surpassing one in 2016 when 19 soldiers died, saw explosives packed inside a van rip through buses in a convoy of 78 vehicles carrying some 2,500 members of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

The Indian Express said D-Sport was yet to release an official statement regarding the matter. The report quoted an official from the broadcaster saying the broadcast of PSL has been suspended.

As per the report, after the attack, the PSL matches between Islamabad United and Multan Sultans and the Lahore Qalandars and Karachi Kings on Saturday were broadcast.

It added that till the day of the attack, the channel’s Twitter handle had primarily been posting updates related to the PSL.

“However, since February 15, the handle has been posting tweets on MMA promotions Cage Warriors and Bellator. The only cricket-related tweet since then was a birthday greetings message for former South African captain AB de Villiers, who is playing for Lahore Qalandars in the PSL,” the report added.

Cricbuzz, a sports news website and app that exclusively covers cricket, has also reportedly suspended the coverage of PSL. Users on Twitter noticed that CricBuzz was no longer covering the T20 event.

The CricBuzz website appears to have no coverage of the league’s matches being played today. However, previous articles of PSL matches can still be found on the website.

While Indian media reports claimed that JeM had claimed responsibility for the attack, the attacker was identified as a Kashmiri youth named Aadil Ahmad Dar who had used more than 750 pounds of explosives to target the military convoy.

Indian military commander Lt Gen DS Hooda, who had led the Indian army’s Northern Command during a similar crisis in September 2016, said it is not possible to bring such a massive amount of explosives into the area “by infiltrating the border”. He told the New York Times on Saturday that “the material may have been taken from stashes of explosives” being used to broaden the Jammu highway where the attack occurred.

Shortly after the attack, Islamabad had strongly condemned the violence and rejected any insinuation that sought to link it to Pakistan without investigation.