Hockey: Security review after latest Pakistan blast

1.00pm

New Zealand hockey bosses will again review the country's participation in the Champions Trophy men's tournament following a suicide bomb attack in Lahore that killed four people on Sunday night (NZ time).

The blast at a mosque, the latest in a string of apparently sectarian assaults, was the last straw for Hockey Australia, which last night followed through on a long-held threat to withdraw.

Olympic champions Australia will be replaced by world No 7 India at the elite six-nation event in December, joining the hosts, New Zealand, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands.

New Zealand Hockey Federation chief executive Ramesh Patel said he was comfortable about security arrangements when he spoke by telephone to counterparts at world governing body FIH before the attack.

However, his attitude had changed after the latest spate of violence struck in the city that will host the tournament from December 4 to 12.

"This latest bombing is a real worry because we've been monitoring security in Pakistan and while there are a number of reasons why we decided to go, one was that the main trouble area tended to be Karachi up until now," Patel told NZPA.

"It's something that we'll just need some time to digest. We'll go back to our international body and check with them."

Patel wasn't surprised to hear Australia had withdrawn, saying it was understandable given the greater terrorist-related focus there.

One of the standard questions New Zealand police put to the organisers of any event when assessing security is whether the United States, Britain or Australia were taking part.

"With Australia now out of it, it possibly alleviates a concern at this tournament," Patel said.

"Until now we understood that everything related to the tournament is in order. So all I can say is that nothing has changed but I can only talk about the situation as it stood before (the attack)."

Pakistan was to host the Champions Trophy in 2001 but security fears in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US forced the international body to relocate the tournament.

Pakistan also had to put off their 2001 home series against New Zealand for a year.

New Zealand's cricket team abruptly cancelled a tour when a bomb went off outside their hotel in Karachi, killing 14 people, in May 2002.

However, Pakistan Hockey Federation secretary Brigadier Musarratullah Khan questioned Australia's decision to withdraw, saying security fears were "baseless".

"We think Australia's pull-out is an attempt to sabotage the event and since it's an FIH event the FIH need to take notice of a top team pulling out of their event," Khan said.

Yesterday's attack was the third this month against a religious target in the eastern Punjab province in apparent sectarian violence between minority Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

- NZPA