Pakistan has ruled out sending the national cricket team to India for an upcoming tournament until security assurances come from the host country.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Thursday that Pakistan’s cricket team would not take part in the World Twenty20 championship in India without a public guarantee from New Delhi over the safety of its players.

“Until and unless clear guarantees on security come from the Indian government, unfortunately we are not in a position to decide sending the team,” Khan said.

The Pakistan team was originally scheduled to fly out to Indian city of Kolkata from the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday. However, sources say the Islamabad government has now put on hold its departure.

Authorities in New Delhi have already made a shift in the venue of the match between India and arch-rivals Pakistan on March 19 from the hill city of Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh State to the city of Kolkata because of security concerns.

This came as some Indian groups threatened to disrupt the match in Dharamsala after India blamed Pakistan over a January militant attack on a military air base that killed seven soldiers in the northern state of Punjab.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Shaharyar Khan has also said that the team’s departure will only be possible once India gives security assurances and the Islamabad’s government also clears the tour.

Reacting to the developments, the International Cricket Council (ICC), the global governing body for international cricket, said it had been given assurances on security from all the Indian state authorities that are hosting matches.

This comes as outside of international tournaments, cricket matches between India and Pakistan have been suspended since militants killed at least 166 people in the Indian port city of Mumbai in a three-day rampage in 2008.

India blamed the massacre on a Pakistan-based militant group. Islamabad has vehemently denied any involvement of its state institutions in terror attacks on Indian soil.

Top cricket countries have also refused to tour Pakistan since 2009, when a group of armed assailants ambushed a bus carrying a visiting Sri Lanka team near Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.