Champions Trophy 2025: Pakistan’s Intelligence Bureau issues a warning about a purported kidnapping conspiracy

Security forces have received a warning from Pakistan’s Intelligence Bureau regarding a purported plot by terrorist organizations, such as Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), ISIS, and other Balochistani groups, to kidnap and hold hostage foreign nationals attending the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. It has come to light that the terrorist group targets Arab and Chinese citizens.

Airports, neighborhoods, ports, and offices—basically, locations that are regularly visited by individuals from the aforementioned nations—are allegedly under the ISKP’s surveillance. According to a story cited by India Today, the group’s goal is reportedly to move the abducted people between safe places, especially at night, in order to elude security personnel.

Due to security concerns, there have been ongoing problems with Pakistan hosting important international competitions in the past.

Two significant incidents that have afflicted the country in the past are the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore and the 2024 attack on Chinese engineers in Shangla.

In the meantime, the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, has informed authorities about the strikes in strategic areas. In a 19-minute film broadcast in 2024, Al Azaim Media asserted that cricket was a Western intellectual warfare instrument used against the Muslim people.

According to the terror group, the sport fostered feelings of nationalistic propaganda, which was in opposition to Islam’s jihadist philosophy. Even going so far as to criticize the Taliban for helping the Afghanistan cricket team advance in the world of cricket.