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 ]]>