Police becomes new champion at Shandur

CHITRAL, June 22: The annual Shandur polo festival concluded on Sunday in which Chitral police won the title by beating Mastuj subdivision by 10 to 5 goals. The police team outclassed their rival from the very beginning and scored goals one after another. Provincial minister for tourism Amjad Afridi was chief guest on the occasion who gave away prizes to the players. Addressing on the occasion, he said the provincial government was making all-out efforts to promote sports and tourism while polo game would find special attention and patronage of the government. He said polo grounds of the major towns of the district, including Garum Chashma , Booni, Shagram and Reshun would be reconstructed and polo players would be given special package from the government so that ‘the game of kings’ is revived in Chitral which promote tourism. Due to the boycott of Gilgit-Baltistan government, eight polo teams from Chitral participated in the festival while an estimated 15,000 polo fans turned out at the venue.–Zahiruddin (Photos by GH Farooqui).  ]]>