India‘s cricket super league has been suspended as tensions with Pakistan continue to soar following cross border clashes in Kashmir this week.
A Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) official said the IPL had been suspended indefinitely due to the India-Pakistan military conflict.
‘Further updates regarding the new schedule and venues of the tournament will be announced in due course after a comprehensive assessment of the situation in consultation with relevant authorities and stakeholders,’ the BCCI said in a statement.
The decision comes after a night of artillery exchanges between Indian and Pakistani soldiers across their frontier in Kashmir, amid a growing military standoff that erupted following an attack on tourists in the India-controlled portion of the disputed region.
India launched missiles on what it called ‘terror camps’ in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir early on May 7 local time. Pakistan responded with shelling and claimed to have shot down Indian planes.
‘Our jet fighters… shot down three Indian Rafales, three Rafales [that] are French,’ the country’s Foreign Minister, Ishq Dar, told parliament on Wednesday, shortly after. ‘Ours were J-10C,’ he added, referring to the Chinese-made ‘Gen 4.5’ fighters.
India has avoided commenting on reports of Pakistan downing its European jets. France did confirm to CNN that at least one had been shot down – the first time a Rafale has been lost in combat.
A senior Pakistani security source told CNN that Wednesday’s ‘dog fight’ between the air forces was one of the ‘largest and longest in recent aviation history’, with some 125 jets battling in the skies for over an hour from their own respective airspaces.
The conflict erupted early Wednesday local time when India pounded Kashmir with missiles
Illustrative image shows Indian Rafale jets during a fly past in India in February 2021
Pakistan has claimed a surprisingly effective response against a significantly larger foe over the last few days.
The military today claimed to have shot down 25 Indian drones yesterday over cities including Karachi, in the south, and Lahore, to the east.
‘Pakistan was quite stunned that a nuclear power could be so careless,’ former Army Brigadier Rashid Wali told Al Jazeera.
He told the outlet that Pakistan reserves the right to respond to India’s missile attacks in self-defence, and to re-establish its nuclear deterrence.
India said it also shot down drones and missiles targeting the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, the contested region sat between the two countries.
