New Delhi: The Commonwealth Games England (CGE) has ruled out the possibility of a terrorist attack during the Commonwealth Games (CWG) event scheduled to be held from October 3 to October 14 in New Delhi.
The statement by the CGE comes a day after Australian sportswoman Dawn Fraser expressed fear over the possibility of a Munich-style terrorist attack.
The CGE has nevertheless warned of possible attacks on soft targets in India to scare away athletes before the commencement of the event.
According to a report published in The Daily Telegraph, CGE has written to England's 17 Commonwealth sports federations after receiving positive feedback about the Indian security plan from the Metropolitan Police Specialist Protection Group. The CGE is responsible for preparation and participation of England team in the event.
It has also advised its athletes not to venture out much during the Games.
On Thursday, swimming legend Dawn Fraser had called on athletes to boycott the Commonwealth Games in Delhi to avoid a Munich Olympic like terror attack.
"Surely there are other championships around the world that we could send our athletes to and I just think we should be looking at that. It's still not too late to pull out. Facilities with leaking roofs --you can't expect athletes to compete in that and the roof may fall in. If I had a son or a daughter, I'd be asking that son or daughter to have second thoughts about going to compete," Fraser said.
In response to Fraser's comments, Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) chief Mike Fennell said that she was not sufficiently informed about the security preparations.
"I think this has been refuted by the Australian Commonwealth Games Association. We live in a world where we respect freedom of speech. But I don't think Miss Fraser knows what is happening in Delhi. She has not inspected it and I don't think she's informed sufficiently to make such a statement," Fennell said.
On Thursday, the CGF chief had expressed satisfaction over the preparation for the event, after inspecting venues.
Fennell finished his two-day inspection tour of the Games venues on Thursday and gave thumbs up to stadiums. But sounding a note of caution Fennell admitted that corruption allegations were a matter of concern and needs to be investigated. He said that the Government must investigate all corruption allegations and added that some work still needed to be done at the venues to make them fully ready for the Games.
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