ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has moved all remaining matches of the Pakistan Super League’s 10 edition to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), it announced on Friday, after deadly confrontations between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.
Border skirmishes between the two South Asian neighbors have escalated since Wednesday when India conducted missile strikes on multiple locations in Pakistan in response to a deadly attack targeting tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22 that New Delhi blames on its neighbor. Islamabad has denied any complicity in the attack.
Pakistan said it had shot down five Indian fighter jets in retaliation to Wednesday’s strikes by India, while 29 Israeli-manufactured Harop drones, launched from India, were downed a day later. Officials have confirmed the killing of nearly 50 people on both sides since Wednesday, in the worst violence in decades between the South Asian neighbors.
Amid the escalating situation, the PCB said the remaining eight fixtures of this year’s PSL, which were previously scheduled to be played in Rawalpindi, Multan and Lahore, will now be staged in the UAE, adding that the new dates and venues of the matches will be shared in due course.
“The PCB has always stood by the position that politics and sports need to be kept apart,” PCB Chair Mohsin Naqvi said.
“However, in view of the extremely irresponsible and dangerous Indian act of targeting the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, which was manifestly done to disrupt the ongoing HBL Pakistan Super League X, the PCB has decided to shift the remaining matches to UAE so that the domestic as well as foreign cricketers, who are our precious guests, can be saved from the possible reckless targeting by India.”
The PCB postponed a PSL X match between Peshawar Zalmi and Karachi Kings, which was due to take place at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Thursday after Pakistan shot down an Indian drone near the venue.
As a responsible organization, Naqvi said, it was important for the PCB to ensure the mental well-being of all players participating in the league.
“I regret that our domestic audience and cricket lovers will not be able to watch these matches in Pakistan’s stadiums,” he said.
“Like in the past, we hope that our stakeholders will rally with us to further the best interests of the tournament, our players and the fans. We are committed to ensuring that the league continues to thrive!“
Separately, an Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals in Dharamsala — less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the town of Jammu where explosions were reported hours earlier — was also abandoned Thursday because of apparent floodlight failure.

JAMMU/ ISLAMABAD: Blasts rang out across the Indian city of Jammu late on Thursday during what the government said was a Pakistani drone and missile attack on military stations around the Kashmir region on the second day of clashes between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Sirens sounded and red flashes and projectiles erupted in the night sky above Jammu for about 2-1/2 hours, a Reuters journalist said, in what appeared to be an escalation in the countries’ worst confrontation in more than two decades.
Two days of fighting have killed nearly four dozen people.
“Military stations at Jammu, Pathankot & Udhampur were targeted by Pakistani-origin drones and missiles along the international border in J&K today,” India’s Ministry of Defense said on X, citing places in and near the federal territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The threats were swiftly neutralized .... No casualties or material losses were reported.”
Indian TV channels also showed flares and flashes in the sky above Jaisalmer city in Rajasthan state, which shares a border with the southern Pakistani province of Sindh.
In a statement, Islamabad denied attacking Pathankot in India’s Punjab state, Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley and Jaisalmer and said the accusations were “entirely unfounded, politically motivated, and part of a reckless propaganda campaign aimed at maligning Pakistan.”
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the country would respond to any escalation “with full resolve and determination to safeguard Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Electricity in Jammu was slowly being restored after a blackout during the attack, a Reuters journalist said.
Eight missiles, fired from Pakistan at the Jammu region towns of Satwari, Samba, Ranbir Singh Pura and Arnia, were intercepted by air defense units, added an Indian military source who asked not to be named.
They were part of a wider attack, the source added.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif earlier said further retaliation was “increasingly certain” after both countries accused each other of launching drone attacks.
World powers from the US to Russia and China have called for calm in one of the world’s most dangerous and populated nuclear flashpoint regions. The US Consulate General in Pakistan’s Lahore ordered staff to shelter in place.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for de-escalation in separate calls with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday, the State Department said.
The relationship between India and Pakistan has been fraught with tension since they gained independence from colonial Britain in 1947. The countries have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir, and clashed many times.
The neighbors, which both claim Kashmir in full and rule over parts of it, separately acquired nuclear weapons in the 1990s.

DRONES, MISSILES, AIR DEFENCES

In the latest confrontations, India said it hit nine “terrorist infrastructure” sites in Pakistan on Wednesday in retaliation for what it says was a deadly Islamabad-backed attack in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22.
Pakistan says it was not involved and denied that any of the sites hit by India were militant bases. It said it shot down five Indian aircraft on Wednesday.
Pakistan’s military said earlier on Thursday it shot down 29 drones from India at multiple locations including the two largest cities of Karachi and Lahore and the garrison city of Rawalpindi, home to the army’s headquarters.
The Indian defense ministry said Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets in northern and western India from Wednesday night into Thursday morning and they were “neutralized” by Indian air defense systems.
In response, Indian forces targeted air defense radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan on Thursday, the ministry said.
Before trading ended, both countries saw their stocks, bonds and currencies decline, and Pakistan’s benchmark share index closed down 5.9 percent.
Local media reported panic buying in some cities in the Indian state of Punjab, which shares a border with Pakistan, as people hoarded essentials.