Having already arrived in India for the championships which were due to start today, media reports of a specific terrorist threat by Muslim extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba against the championships lead to the team being sent home, according to Badminton England.
"Following those reports, Badminton England felt the risk to the safety of the team was one they could not take,” said an official statement.
"This was an incredibly tough decision and one we didn't take lightly," added Badminton England chief executive Adrian Christy. "After the Olympic Games, this is the most prestigious championships in the world but we were not prepared to risk the safety of our players, coaches and staff in what we felt could have been a very volatile environment."
Security for sports teams in the Indian sub-continent has been put into question following the terrorist attack against the Sri Lanka cricket team bus in Lahore in March this year and a strike that killed 166 people in Mumbai last November.
Lashkar-e-Taiba (“Soldiers of the Pure”) is a Pakistan-based organisation fighting against Indian control in Kashmir. It has been blamed for several terrorist incidents in India including the October 2005 bomb attacks in Delhi and the aforementioned Mumbai attacks.
