India assures Pakistan diplomats and cricket team they'll be safe

``The diplomats are safe,'' Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani said after a Hindu militant group that has vowed to disrupt Pakistan's first cricket tour of India in 12 years threatened Islamabad's diplomats as well.

Advani moved to reassure the Pakistanis that they would be safe after Pakistan Information Minister Mushahid Hussain said on Saturday the team would only go ahead with the tour if New Delhi gave firm guarantees for its safety.

``Our first and foremost concern is the security and safety of our players,'' Hussain told AFP.

Advani, considered a hawk among India's ruling Hindu nationalists, said persistent differences between New Delhi and Islamabad should not be allowed to extend to sports and culture.

He voiced the hope that Pakistani cricketers would tour India as scheduled from January 21 despite Hindu militants' threats to stop them from playing for alleged support by Islamabad to Indian terrorists.

``I hope they will come,'' Advani said. ``I want them to come.

``The (federal government) has taken appropriate action against vandalism. We have tried to ensure full and fool-proof security to the players,'' he added.

On Sunday, newspapers reported that police had found Hindu militant pamphlets near the Pakistan embassy here warning diplomats would be harmed if the Pakistani team arrived in India.

A police officer said the two-page pamphlet was signed by the ``acting president'' of the New Delhi chapter of the Hindu militant Shiv Sena party which rules Bombay.

Security was immediately beefed up at the embassy, police said.

``Appropriate measures have been taken for the security of the diplomats. We are trying to track down the people who have signed the pamphlets,'' joint commissioner of police Y.S. Dadwal said.

Shiv Sena activists dug up the cricket pitch at the New Delhi stadium, venue of the first Test, last week, in a bid to prevent the match.

Eight Shiv Sena supporters were arrested overnight, newspapers said.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Saturday blamed ``a handful of people'' in India and Pakistan of trying to sabotage efforts to normalise relations between the two countries.

The Pakistani team, which last played a Test in India in March 1987, is to arrive here January 21 for a two-Test series, the Asian Test championship opener against India and a triangular one-day series also featuring Sri Lanka.

In 1991, Hindu fanatics vandalised the pitch at Bombay's stadium days before Pakistan were to start a limited-over series in India.

Pakistan cancelled that tour, and two more in 1993 and 1994, because of security fears. They played in India during the 1996 World Cup and the Independence Cup the following year without any problems.

The police, meanwhile, urged newspapers in the Indian capital to report to them any information which could help prevent sabotage by Hindu militants.

The militants have in the past tipped off photographers before staging violent attacks.

The Shiv Sena says India should not have sporting links with Pakistan as long as Islamabad supports Moslem separatists in Kashmir and insurgent groups elsewhere in the country.

It was also announced on Sunday from Karachi that Brigadier Rafi A. Saeed, a member of the PCB Council, will meet Indian government and cricket board officials and the Pakistani High Commissioner during his six-day stay in the Indian capital to discuss security measures to be taken during the tour.

It was also revealed on Sunday that a former Pakistani army officer has filed a civil suit against the tour fearing it could lead to bloodshed between the two countries.

In his petition, retired Major Lal Khan Bhatti on Saturday asked the city's senior civil judge to implicate Pakistan captain Wasim Akram, coach Javed Miandad and vice captain Moin Khan as parties to the suit.

``I am not against sporting relations with India but they should be off-shore and after Shiv Sena's threats I fear serious bloodshed if the tour goes on,'' the 55-year-old Bhatti told AFP.

Bhatti said if any mishap occurs during the tour the people of both the countries will be enraged.

``I think bookies are keen on getting this tour on so that they earn large sums of money on it,'' said Bhatti, who in 1988 unsuccessfully contested Pakistan's presidential election.