Kabul: At least three Afghan cricketers were killed in a Pakistani airstrike in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) confirmed on Friday.
The ACB said that the players, identified as Kabeer Agha, Sibghatullah, and Haroon, had travelled from Urgun to Sharana in Paktika, near the Pakistan border, to prepare for an upcoming tri-nation cricket series involving Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
According to the ACB’s statement, the three players were killed “after returning home to Urgun” when they were “targeted during a gathering” in what the Board described as “a cowardly attack carried out by the Pakistani regime.”
Five other people were also reportedly killed in the airstrike.
Condemning the strikes, the Afghanistan Cricket Board called it a “cowardly attack” and announced the country’s immediate withdrawal from the scheduled tri-nation series.