Modi to open 12th South Asian Games on Feb 5

Guwahati: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 12th South Asian Games (SAG) on February 5, which will be held at Guwahati and Shillong from February 5-16.

A total of 3333 athletes and officials of SAARC nations Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be participating in the games.

The chairman of the organizing committee of the mega event and Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that, a total of 228 events in 23 sports disciplines will be played during the games.

“16 sports disciplines - Athletics, Basketball, Volleyball, Swimming, Triathlon, Hockey, Weightlifting, Wrestling, Squash, Shooting, Kho Kho, Kabaddi, Handball, Cycling and Tennis will be played at Guwahati and 7 sports disciplines Archery, Badminton, Boxing, Judo, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Wushu will be played at Shillong. Men Football will be played at Guwahati and Women football at Shillong,” Sonowal said.

“The total no of medals for medal tally are - 228 Gold, 228 Silver and 308 Bronze medals,” the Union minister said.

On other hand participants from Nepal, Afghanistan had arrived at Guwahati on Monday.

On the issue of security for the mega event after threat of terror attack, Assam and Meghalaya police have taken all security measures to tackle all efforts.

“We have arranged all the security measures for the games,” Assam police IGP SN Singh said.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)