KARACHI: With the Arabian Sea breeze sweeping across the field and the clip-clop of hooves pounding on turf, Naziha Hassan leans low off her saddle, eyes fixed on the white ball, her hammer slicing through the air. In one motion, she sends the ball flying between the goalposts of Karachi’s Clifton Polo Ground, a makeshift arena bordered by high-rises on one side and the beach on the other.
In a city known more for its craze for traditional sports like cricket and football, this unlikely seaside field is home to a rare sight: women competing alongside men in polo.
Once a royal pastime in South and Central Asia, polo was seen as a proving ground for valor and strategy. Traditionally considered a men’s sport, it served not only as recreation but also as a means of training cavalry, developing horsemanship and preparing warriors and noblemen for combat.
“I haven’t felt that they’re going easy on me,” Hassan said of being treated differently by male players.
“I don’t think I was ever treated like a girl in the game... if they have to hit me, ride off, to make me fall, they will make me fall and that is perfectly fine,” she told Arab News.
A doctor by profession, Hassan became passionate about polo when she would go to school in Islamabad and stop by the polo club on her way back home, looking at horses.
After relocating to Karachi, she joined the Gallop Club five years ago to take riding lessons before making her way into polo, a high-speed sport where riders clash mid-play, horses collide and players often fall.
For Hassan and her fellow female players, polo’s appeal goes beyond gender. It’s about the skills, the connection with horses and the strategy. Skill and mental sharpness, they say, often outweigh brute strength.
“I don’t think gender makes a difference in the sport, to be fair,” she said. “Yes, there are some things [like] the physical strength and stuff that sometimes is important, but at the same time, like, polo is a bit different because in polo it depends on the horse a lot also. It also depends on your strategy as well.”
That view is shared by a long-time male player at the club who identified himself as Siavash.
“We absolutely don’t care for them [as female players] here,” he said.
“When you’re playing the game, you only see the other person as a player. And if you start thinking that she’s a female, then basically, they won’t let you play,” he said with a smile.
On the field, players engage fiercely and focus purely on the game. Any suggestion of treating female players differently is brushed aside.
“In polo, we say 70 percent of the game is the horse,” Siavash added. “If a girl plays well and rides a good horse, then she’s a proper player. Some girls even play better than men. It’s about your riding, your swing and your strategy, not just strength.”
Alishba Ahsan, another regular on the field, admits it’s a tough space for women, but she embraces the challenge.
“There are barely three or four girls playing here, including me,” she said. “It’s tough, but it’s also a very good experience. You don’t get any leverage for being a girl. You ride and play just like the boys.”
Ahsan, a law student, said she had fallen five or six times, but instead of backing out, she became more determined.
Off the field, the sport is also inspiring a new generation.
Ayesha Naveed, a stay-at-home mother of a first-grade student, said her journey onto the polo field began with her daughter’s interest in horse riding. She initially accompanied her to practice, but later decided to join in herself.
“I want her to become a good polo player someday,” she said of her daughter. “It makes me really happy to see that this is a sport where everyone plays together … There is no segregation like ‘this is the women’s team’ or ‘this is the men’s team.’ And the women are actually doing even better than the men.”
Her daughter, Alaya Naveed, takes riding lessons twice a week after school. She has already mastered the basics — walk, trot and even how to fall properly.
“I only come here on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Alaya said, her eyes gleaming. “I would like to play polo because I see the other girls and it looks fun.”
“I think it’ll take me ten more months to be a polo player,” she said after a brief pause, with childlike innocence.
Chasing goals: Women in Karachi take the reins alongside men in polo
https://arab.news/4wh5d
Chasing goals: Women in Karachi take the reins alongside men in polo
- Traditionally considered a men’s sport, polo was seen as a proving ground for valor and strategy
- Female players say skill and mental sharpness often outweigh brute strength while playing polo
Pakistan postpones PSL match after Indian drone shot down near Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium
- Pakistan military said on Thursday it had shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones launched by India at multiple locations
- One drone was shot down over garrison city of Rawalpindi where Peshawar Zalmi And Karachi Kings match was to take place
KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board has rescheduled the HBL PSL X match between Peshawar Zalmi and Karachi Kings after Pakistan shot down an Indian drone near the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium where the game was set to take place today, Thursday.
The Pakistan military said on Thursday it had shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones launched by India at multiple locations. One drone was shot down over the garrison city of Rawalpindi, military spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said in a televised statement. Rawalpindi is home to the Pakistan army’s heavily fortified headquarters.
The drone was shot down near the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.
“The PCB will announce the revised date in due course,” the cricket board said, saying VIP Gallery and enclosures ticket holders could obtain refunds from TCS Express Centers while tickets bought online would be automatically reimbursed in the accounts used at the time of booking.
The PCB’s statement did not mention the drone attacks, but the postponement comes in the wake of violence between neighbors India and Pakistan, who this week have engaged in the worst direct military confrontation in decades.
Fighting has escalated between the nuclear-armed neighbors since Wednesday when India said it struck nine “terrorist infrastructure” sites in Pakistan, some of them linked to an attack by militants that killed 26 in Indian-administered Kashmir on Apr. 22. Pakistan said 31 people were killed in the Indian strikes and vowed to retaliate, subsequently saying it had shot down five Indian aircraft and a combat drone.
On Thursday, the Pakistan army said India was “attacking Pakistan with Israeli-made Harop drones in panic” while India’s defense ministry said Islamabad had launched an overnight air attack using “drones and missiles” before New Delhi retaliated to destroy an air defense system in the eastern city of Lahore. The Pakistani defense minister has rejected India’s claims.
Flight operations shut at several Indian airports, IPL match moved amid Pakistan standoff
- Several airports in northern India have been closed after New Delhi launched strikes on neighboring Pakistan on Wednesday
- Match between Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings was due to take place in Dharamsala, where the airport has closed
NEW DELHI: India’s IPL cricket match on Sunday between Mumbai and Punjab has been moved to Gujarat, local media reported on Thursday, while airlines suspended flight operations from more than two dozen airports across northern and western regions of the country amid heightened tensions with Pakistan.
The match between Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings was due to take place in Dharamsala, where the airport has closed in the wake of violence between India and neighboring Pakistan.
But Thursday evening’s match between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals, which is also set to take place in Dharamsala, will proceed as planned, as will all other games in coming days.
Sunday’s match will now be played in the city of Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat, the state’s cricket association secretary Anil Patel told the Press Trust of India news agency on Thursday.
Several airports in northern India have been closed after New Delhi launched strikes on neighboring Pakistan on Wednesday.
In adviseries to passengers, key domestic airlines said their flights will remain suspended until Saturday from airports including Amritsar in northern Punjab and Srinagar in India-controlled Kashmir, bordering Pakistan.
India’s Civil Aviation Ministry hasn’t officially commented on the closure of airports after tensions flared up with Pakistan. A spokeswoman for the ministry, Beena Yadav, declined to comment on Thursday.
Indigo, the country’s biggest domestic carrier, on Wednesday canceled 165 flights, while Air India and Air India Express had a similar number of cancelations. Air India even diverted two of its international flights enroute from Amritsar, close to Lahore, to New Delhi, because of the sudden closure of the airport.
The strikes on Wednesday came two weeks after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing an attack on tourists in the Indian-administered side of disputed Kashmir, a charge Pakistan denies.
The arch-rivals have since exchanged fire across their contested border in Kashmir. The violence has raised fears of a wider conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Pakistan says shot down 25 drones, India says destroyed air defense system in Lahore
- Pakistan army says Israeli-made drones neutralized in at least nine locations including Lahore and near Karachi
- Indian defense ministry says “targeted air defense radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan” overnight
KARACHI: The Pakistan military said on Thursday it had shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones launched by India at multiple locations, while India said it had “neutralized” Pakistan’s attempts to strike military targets with drones and missiles.
Fighting has escalated between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors since Wednesday when India said it struck nine “terrorist infrastructure” sites in Pakistan, some of them linked to an attack by militants that killed 26 in Indian-administered Kashmir on Apr. 22. Pakistan said 31 people were killed in the Indian strikes and vowed to retaliate, subsequently saying it had shot down five Indian aircraft and a combat drone.
The conflict between India and Pakistan has been confined in recent decades mostly to the disputed mountainous region of Kashmir. But the air strikes on Wednesday morning, which also hit the towns of Bahawalpur and Muridke in the heart of the country, were seen in Islamabad as a major escalation.
Early on Thursday morning, reports started emerging from multiple Pakistani cities of explosions and firing, including the two largest cities of the country, Karachi and Lahore.
The military’s media wing subsequently confirmed that India was “attacking Pakistan with Israeli-made Harop drones in panic.”
The Harop is a standoff loitering munition attack weapon system designed to locate and precisely attack targets, manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries.
“So far, 25 Israeli-made Harop drones have been shot down by the Pakistani army’s soft kill (technical) and hard kill (weapons),” the army said in a statement. “The debris of Israeli-made Harop drones is being collected from different areas of Pakistan.”
In the context of military defense, hard kill refers to destroying or neutralizing an incoming threat, such as a missile or drone, by physically destroying it or its components. Soft kill, on the other hand, aims to defeat the threat by disrupting its guidance or communication signals, often using electronic countermeasures or decoys.
One drone was shot down over the garrison city of Rawalpindi, military spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said in a separate televised statement. Rawalpindi is home to the Pakistan army’s heavily fortified headquarters.
One drone hit a military target near Lahore, the capital and largest city of the province of Punjab, and the second-largest city in Pakistan after Karachi. Four personnel of the Pakistan army were injured in this attack, Chaudhry added.
Other places where drones were neutralized were Gujranwala, Chakwal, Attock, Bahawalpur, Miano, Chor and near Karachi, which the country’s largest city and commercial capital.
“As we speak, the process of India sending across these Harop drones, this naked aggression, continues, and the armed forces are on a high degree of alert and neutralizing them,” the army spokesman said.
Earlier in the day, police reported a civilian casualty in the southern Sindh province, also confirmed by Chaudhry, when a drone crashed in the Sarfaraz Leghari village, located in Ghotki district.
“This morning, a drone fell over two villagers... killing one man and injuring another,” Senior Superintendent of Police Dr. Samiullah Soomro told Arab News over the phone, saying more details would be confirmed following a visit to the site.
“INDIAN RESPONSE”
India’s defense ministry said in a statement on Thursday Pakistan had launched an overnight air attack using “drones and missiles,” before New Delhi retaliated to destroy an air defense system in Lahore.
“Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets ... using drones and missiles,” according to the statement, adding that “these were neutralized” by air defense systems.
New Delhi said areas targeted included sites in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, and India’s Punjab state, including the key cities of Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, as well as Bhuj in Gujarat state.
“The debris of these attacks is now being recovered from a number of locations,” it added.
The defense ministry said on Thursday morning its military had “targeted air defense radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan,” saying the “response has been in the same domain, with the same intensity, as Pakistan.”
It added that it had been “reliably learnt that an air defense system at Lahore has been neutralized.”
Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has rejected the claims, saying there was no damage to air defenses in Lahore.
Pakistani authorities have not yet commented on this.
India also accused Pakistan of having “increased the intensity of its unprovoked firing across the Line of Control using mortars and heavy caliber artillery” across the de facto border in Jammu and Kashmir
India said the number of people who had been killed by Pakistani firing since the escalation of violence on Wednesday had risen to 16, including three women and five children.
Speaking in parliament, Pakistani Information Ministers said Pakistan had killed 40-50 Indian soldiers and destroyed a brigade headquarter along the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides Kashmir between the two nations. The claims could not be independently verified.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars in the past, two of them over Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.
Since April 22, they have intensified firing and shelling across the Line of Control.
For decades India has accused Pakistan of supporting militants in attacks on Indian interests, especially in Indian-administered Kashmir. Pakistan denies such support and in turn accuses India of backing separatist and other insurgents in Pakistan, which New Delhi denies.
With inputs from AFP and Reuters
Pakistan welcomes appointment of UN special envoy to combat Islamophobia
- Former Spanish foreign minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos to serve in new role
- UN annually observes International Day to Combat Islamophobia on Mar. 15
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday welcomed the appointment of former Spanish foreign minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos as the UN’s special envoy to combat Islamophobia.
The new envoy was announced on Wednesday, with Moratinos reaffirming his “commitment to stand in solidarity with Muslim communities and to stand up against all forms of discrimination and bigotry.”
In 2022, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution sponsored by 60 Member-States of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which designated Mar. 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia.
The date was chosen as the anniversary of mass shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which 51 people were killed during Friday prayers in 2019.
“Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad described the appointment of a special envoy as a major milestone in the OIC’s efforts to combat Islamophobia and promote tolerance, respect and peaceful coexistence,” a statement from the office of Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN said on Thursday.
“Together, we stand against faith-based hatred and discrimination,” the statement said, quoting Ahmad.
Moratinos has previously served as Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.
The mandate of the Office of the Special Envoy on Combating Islamophobia includes monitoring, reporting and advising on rising Islamophobic trends globally and supporting the UN’s broader efforts against religious intolerance.
Deadly disease kills over 100 yaks in Pakistan’s northern Shimshal pasture in Hunza
- Local farmers report huge financial losses as many yaks in the area have fallen ill
- GB authorities say veterinary team has been sent with medicines to treat the animals
KHAPLU, Gilgit-Baltistan: Over 100 yaks have been killed after a mysterious disease broke out in the high-altitude pasture of Shimshal Pamir, local residents said on Wednesday, as officials confirmed the situation and said a medical team had been dispatched for rescue.
Located at 3,100 meters above sea level, Shimshal is the highest settlement in Pakistan’s northern Hunza region and the last village before the country’s border with China.
“A disease broke out in the pasture of Shimshal and so far more than 100 yaks were killed,” Azam Khan, the general secretary of the Shimshal Nature Trust (SNT), a community representative organization in the valley, told Arab News over the phone.
“Many yaks are ill,” he continued. “We farmers are facing huge economic losses. My two young yaks, worth Rs400,000 [$1,423], were also killed due to this disease.”
“Shimshal valley is home to more than 1,600 people,” he continued. “We rely on tourism and livestock farming to make ends meet. Yak raising is a favorite and profitable hobby for our villagers.”
Khan urged the government to take immediate measures to save the animals.
Naimat Karim, another farmer from the valley, said three of his yaks were killed by the disease.
“Agriculture and livestock farming are our profession. Out of five yaks, I have lost three … This is a financial setback,” he added.
Khuzaima Anwar, the deputy commissioner for Hunza district, confirmed the development, saying a veterinary medical team had been dispatched to the area.
“Our team is on its way to the Shimshal pasture,” he said. “They will diagnose the disease and treat the animals. Once the medical team returns, we will be in a better position to explain the situation.”
Speaking to Arab News, Dr. Shehzad Arif, a deputy director at the Gilgit-Baltistan Livestock and Dairy Development Department, said it would take at least three days for the team to reach the Shimshal pastures.
“We received information from the local community on May 5 about the death of yaks in the high-altitude pasture,” he said. “So we formed a team and dispatched them with essential medicines to the area the next day.”
“As far as our information goes, 108 yaks have died in the valley while 80 are ill,” he added.
He refused to speculate about the disease, saying the team would provide more accurate information.
“Yak is the backbone of the economy for the people living in the Karakorum-Himalaya mountain ranges of Gilgit-Baltistan,” Shakoor Ali, head of the Zoology Department at Public School Skardu, told Arab News.
“Yak is rightly known as the coconut of animals, as it provides food in the form of milk and meat, clothing from its hides and wool, and shelter from the tents made out of its hair. Almost all parts of the yak’s body have cultural, economic, medicinal, and religious value,” he continued, adding that Shimshal valley herders would face immense livelihood challenges without them.
