The rival sides climbed through the Hindu Kush like medieval armies, horse-mounted warriors leading thousands of fanatical followers to do battle on a grassy highland arena.
But this epic spectacle, which unfolded in Pakistan’s North West Frontier province last week, was a matter of sport, not war. And there wasn’t a Taliban fighter in sight.
Every summer, polo teams from the mountain districts of Chitral and Gilgit converge on the Shandur Pass, a spectacular natural stadium surrounded by snow-sprinkled peaks that, at an altitude of about 3,700m, is the world’s highest polo ground.
The tournament dates back to the 1930s, when a British officer named Cobb formalized a centuries-old sporting rivalry.
“The game of kings and the king of games,” reads the sign at the entrance to Shandur.
It remains a rambunctious, impassioned affair. Locals claim to have invented polo and their version — known as “freestyle” polo — has little of the money, pomp or indeed rules of the more genteel game played elsewhere.
The riders, rugged mountain men on sweat-soaked horses, thunder down the pitch, clinging precariously to their saddles and wielding mallets like sabers. Clashing, they swing their mallets like scythes, hitting man as often as ball.
Assistants dash into the fray, risking injury to replace lost or smashed mallets. Noses are bloodied, horses tumble and, as the ball cannons towards the goal, the crowd rises to frenzied cheers.
But if the rules have not changed in decades, circumstances have on the frontier. And this year the tournament was nearly canceled.
Chitral is an island of peace in a province at war. In districts on every side — Dir, Swat and across the border in Afghanistan — Pakistani and Western troops are battling the Taliban. The violence has not spread to Chitral, which has a minority Pashtun population.
But the idyllic valley has not escaped the bitter crosswinds. Over the past year at least 20 Chitrali paramilitary soldiers have been killed in fighting elsewhere. Green Pakistani flags flutter outside houses in a mark of the bereaved.
Last week, the district head Maghfirat Shah called on the government to scrap the festival, arguing it was disrespectful to the slain soldiers. Critics accused him of an ideological agenda: The mayor is a member of a religious political party that has virulently opposed the military operation.
At a public rally days later his supporters issued a more sinister warning: that there could be a Taliban suicide attack. After intense back-room talks and the deployment of extra security, the organizers prevailed.
“They are just creating a fear factor,” said Siraj ul Mulk, of the princely family of Chitral. “It’s precisely because of distractions like this that our people are not falling prey to the Taliban.”
The crowd was smaller than previous years but equally fervent. A tented city sprung up around the pitch, where 200 foreigners joined thousands of locals. The sponsors, a mobile phone company, provided Blackberry coverage.
And on the eve of the final, young men jigged and twirled to traditional, drum-driven music into the small hours. The players tried to sleep. Most are amateurs — soldiers, teachers, policemen and watchmen, some in their 50s. But the best are feted with Premier League-style adulation.
“If they win, the people give them their hearts,” said Mazar Ahmed, a hoarse 19-year-old Gilgit fan. “For us, this is like the World Cup and Twenty20 cricket all in one.”
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS