No complaints -- Pak soccer body

No complaints -- Pak soccer body
KAMAL SIDDIQI

KARACHI, July 18: The Pakistan Football Federation said on Tuesday that it would not condemn an incident in neighbouring Afghanistan last week in which members of the Taliban militia shaved off heads of Pakistani soccer players for wearing ``un-Islamic dress'' during a friendly football match with Afghans at Kandahar.

The bizarre incident occurred when the Taliban raided the third match between the players from Pakistan and their Afghan competitors in the religious capital of Afghanistan, Kandahar, and accused the Pakistani players of ``spreading obscenity and inciting passions'' by wearing shorts.The Taliban had earlier decreed that men could wear only shalwars (baggy trousers) when playing football. The game, which has a passionate following in Afghanistan, was reluctantly allowed by the Taliban, alongwith male wrestling, after most sport activities were banned for being a waste of time.

Abdul Qayuum, captain of the young Afghan Club, Chaman (Pakistan) told a Pakistani newspaper said the players were released on Sunday last and were deported to Pakistan.The Pakistani players who escaped sought refuge in the local Pakistani consulate. But the Pakistan Football Federation said that it would not condemn the incident since the punishment was ``not that severe'' and that the match was not an official engagement between the two countries.Earlier, Afghanistan hit the sports headlines when it did not allow their boxing team to shave their beards - as it is a crime to shave one's beard in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The boxers were automatically disqualified from their Asian Boxing engagements.