BAHAWALPUR: A large number of visitors, including women and children, thronged the historical Dring Stadium to have a glimpse of the ICC Championship Trophy, which was displayed as a part of the Trophy Tour.

This was the first-ever ICC Champions Trophy’s display in the city, which had also been a cricket centre for years during the previous decades. Now its stadium is abandoned due to lack of interest of the government and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

A large number of youth celebrated the trophy by dancing on beats of drum in the stadium. The trophy will be taken to other cities on Tuesday.

CANCELLED: Timely intervention of police and district administration foiled an attempt to hold a big camel dangal (fight) with millions of rupees as stake money under the guise of a camel mela at village Hotewala in the suburbs of Bahawalpur city.

The venue was decorated with multi-coloured banners, flags and there were groups of drum beaters and Jhoomar dancers entertaining the audience.

Dawn learnt that the organisers, including Lambardar Haji Ramzan and his several influential associates, through the offices of Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Malik Zaheer Iqbal Channar managed to seek the administration’s approval for a camel mela at Hotewala on Sunday night. For this purpose, hundreds of camels decorated with multi-coloured clothes were brought from south Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh.

The animals had been brought from Lodhran, Kot Addu, Taunsa Sharif, Rojhan, Dharki, Ghotki, Larkana, Rojhan, Alipur, Larkana, Dera Bugti, Sibi and Rajanpur.

Police got the tip-off regarding camels fight programme along with gambling bet of millions of rupees. It was revealed that there could be 25 camels’ fights while the organisers had also arranged food stuff.

After the leak of the information, police and administration swung into action and cancelled the so-called camel mela.

At this, the event organisers tried their best to contact the Punjab Assembly deputy speaker for only four camels’ fights but he (deputy speaker) avoided any contact with the organisers with the result the mega camel fight and gambling event in the guise of the camel festival was cancelled.

The camel owners loaded their camels into truck and returned to their respective places along with hundreds of spectators who had also gathered at the venue.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2025