Tour by Pak cricket team a matter of national shame: Shiv Sena

Maintaining his strong opposition to the tour by the Pakistani cricket team to India, Shiv Sena on Thursday said it was a matter of "national shame".

"The Pakistan team will be playing matches at Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru. At one point or the other, Pak terrorists have attacked these cities," Thackeray said.

The feet of Pakistani players wont be touching Maharashtra but their tour of these cities is a matter of national shame, he said, in an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana here.

Thackeray also flayed BCCI, saying "it was betraying the country for sake of money" and our cricketers were part of the betrayal.

Referring to Pakistan's role in 26/11 and Parliament attacks, Thackeray said playing against Pak cricketers is an insult to our martyr jawans.

Thackeray also criticised Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, saying he had "offered his services to Pakistan" by giving green signal for the Pak tour to India.

"Except for Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar, no one opposed playing cricket with Pakistan," he said.

The Home Ministry on October 30 had cleared Pakistan cricket team's tour of India for a limited-over series beginning December 25.

The Raj Thackeray-led MNS has also opposed the Pak cricket tour.

"Raj saheb had already declared that we will not allow any India-Pak match in Maharashtra," MNS MLA Shishir Shinde told PTI.

In October 1991, Shinde, who was then with Shiv Sena, had dug up the pitch at Wankhede stadium to protest against an India-Pak match which was scheduled to be held there. PTI VT DK SG JMF 11011424 NNNN

SHIP-LD RESCUE ZCZC PRI GEN NAT .CHENNAI MDS3 SHIP-LD RESCUE Search on for six missing sailors; Probe ordered into incident

Chennai, Nov 1 (PTI) Efforts continued today to trace six missing sailors of an oil tanker that ran aground off a city beach even as 15 of their colleagues were rescued and a probe by the DG Shipping was ordered into the incident.

Coast Guard ships along with two helicopters are searching for the sailors who went missing yesterday after their life boat capsized in choppy waters hours before cyclone Nilam made the landfall at Mahabalipuram, about 55 km from here, Coast Guard Deputy Inspector General Kurdeep Singh said. Fifteen other crew members of 'Pratibha Cauvery', who remained onboard the vessel after it drifted in high velocity winds and ran aground off Besant Nagar, were rescued early this morning, Chennai Port Trust Officials said.

One sailor drowned while 15 others were rescued by local fishermen last evening after the vessel with 37 crew on board ran aground near Elliott's Beach, 200 metres from the shore.

Singh said Coast Guard vessels "Varuna" and "Rajshri" were involved in the rescue operations. After overseeing the rescue efforts, Chennai Port Trust Chairman Atulya Mishra said, "The DG Shipping will conduct an investigation into this (the incident)." The ship was asked to move to the high sea on October 30 as a precautionary measure in view of the cyclone, which was to cross the north Tamil Nadu coast, he told reporters. Mishra said when the ship was trying to move it faced some problems as it lost the anchor. PTI VIJ MS VS RA DV 11011428 NNNN