Seven-day spring polo festival begins
Among others, a large number of foreign tourists were present on the occasion. As many as 42 polo teams are taking part in the tournament who would play six matches every day. On the first day, four matches were played: Chitral Scouts A vs Chitral Levies C, Chitral levies A vs Reshun Green, Ovir vs Reshun Yellow, and Barenis vs Sayurj School Blue. Those performing best during the tournament will be selected for the Sannual Shandur polo festival to be held in July. It may be noted that the spring polo festival was scheduled to be held in the first week of May but religious parties asked the organizers to delay it till the release of 22 people held for violence in the aftermath of the blasphemy incident at Shahi Masjid on April 21. At the inaugural ceremony of the festival on Tuesday, leaders of religious parties including Maulana Abdul Shakoor and Qari Jamshed Ahmed said they were not against the polo tournament. The clerics said they would extend all-out support to the polo players who have been promoting the traditional game of Chitral.–Muhkam Uddin ]]>
I am all for the spring festival previously called the Jashn e Chitral; had been part of the organising team twice in the early 2000 but is it the right time to hold a festival in Chitral given all the complicated blasphemy issue? No question in the fact that people have a right to entertainment in the form of sport especially if it has a legacy of promoting Chitral’s cultural identity through POLO. BUT still I personally believe that it wasn’t the right time. It could have been organised after Ramadan when things would have calmed down a little.