Minerva move court, East Bengal wait and watch

Minerva Punjab FC pulled out but refused to give up on points while East Bengal adopted a wait and watch approach towards its scheduled fixture after the Pulwama terror attack cast a shadow on their matches against Real Kashmir FC in SrinagarDefending champions Minerva did not show up for their clash against a ready RKFC in Srinagar on Monday after asserting that the home club and the All India Football Federation AIFF failed in providing written security assurancesEast Bengal on the other hand conveyed their concerns about the February 28 match to the AIFF but refrained from making an outright pullout threat Their clash against RKFC is the last scheduled ILeague match in Srinagar The AIFF meanwhile has referred the Minerva issue to its League Committee and maintained silence on East Bengals concernsThe entire sequence of events is a fallout of Thursdays attack in which at least 40 CRPF paramilitary troopers were killed while several others injured It has been termed the deadliest terrorist strike in three decades in Jammu and Kashmir Minerva claims it couldnt have travelled to Srinagar after its foreign players were specifically told by their respective embassies to avoid the JampK capital The club has refused to offer a forfeiture and has moved the Delhi High Court after the AIFF refused to relocate their matchWe have filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court seeking relief so that we are not forced to play in Srinagar at this volatile time Minerva Punjab FC owner Ranjit Bajaj told PTI Even today there was a 12hour encounter where four Armymen have been martyred And they are saying come and play football here Unless the court intervenes we are not expecting natural justiceInterestingly the AIFF has also not declared the match a forfeiture till now According to the FIFA guidelines in the event of a forfeiture full points are awarded to the team turning up for the game After the February 14 attack East Bengal also wrote to the AIFF asking for a change in venue We have sent a letter to AIFF and we are awaiting the revert Let them reply and then we will decide the next course of action East Bengal CEO Sanjit Sen saidAIFF has to let us know when and where the match is going to be held Once they let us know we will decide our stance he added ILeague CEO Sunando Dhar though said security was not an issue as the local authorities assured them of all the necessary arrangements The local security authorities in Srinagar have given a goahead to hold the match The AlFF has assured of all the necessary arrangements for players and officials by the local authority Dhar saidHe added that the whole security arrangement of the players from the airport to the team hotel and from travelling from the hotel to the ground and return everything was taken care of While Minerva Punjab are not in contention East Bengal and Real Kashmir are both title contenders this season and it remains to be seen what the AIFF does in the matter Real Kashmir FC cofounders Sandeep Chattoo and Shamim Meraj expressed disappointment that Mondays match did not take placeIts very unfortunate that the match could not take place today at TRC we had made all the necessary arrangements for the visiting team and had got the local authorities supporting us Despite apprehensions a lot of locals turned up for the match the duo said in a joint statementCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatespgtThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever