HYDERABAD, India, (Reuters) – England pulled out of the badminton world championships in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad yesterday, citing a “specific terrorist threat”.
Badminton England said in a statement the decision followed  “concerns about the English team potentially being a target of  attack in the event of a terrorist act”.

The team had already arrived in India for the championships,  due to start today, but will return home immediately.

“The decision follows media reports of a specific Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist threat against the championships,” the statement said, referring to the Pakistan-based militant group  blamed for November’s attack on Mumbai in which 166 people were killed.

“Following those reports, Badminton England felt the risk to the safety of the team was one they could not take.”

Badminton England chief executive Adrian Christy said the  federation had taken advice from the British Foreign Office and  High Commission in India, although the Foreign Office said it had not warned them of a specific threat.

“The decision to withdraw from the world championship was entirely theirs, and they took the decision based on their own assessment on the ground and the Foreign Office travel advice for India which warns of a high general threat level …  although it doesn’t warn specifically against travel to Hyderabad,” a Foreign Office spokesman said.

“I think they’d seen reports in local media but as far as we’re aware there was no specific threat. We have not changed  our travel advice.”

SAFETY

PARAMOUNT
The Sri Lanka cricket team bus was ambushed in Lahore,  Pakistan, in March while India remains nervous after the Mumbai  attack.

Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) chief operating officer Thomas Lund told a news conference that although England’s decision was unfortunate their withdrawal was not a reflection on the security plan in place for the world championships.

“Over the last six months we have been working closely with the police department and the host organisers, including  putting together a (security) plan that has from our side been  assessed by a professional security agency,” he said.

A BWF official said no other teams had withdrawn.

Christy said the decision to pull out had been taken with “great regret” but that  the safety of players was paramount.

“We were not prepared to risk the safety of our players, coaches and staff in what we felt could have been a very volatile environment,” he said in a statement.

An Indian badminton federation official blamed the media for causing panic.

“They (England players) didn’t want to go actually. They were called back by their government over security fears,”  Punnaiah Choudhary, Bad-minton Association of India (BAI) joint  secretary, told Reuters.
“They were disappointed and so are we as organisers. A  rumour (of the threat) was stretched by the media  internationally.”