A national women's swimming competition due to be held in Muslim-majority Bangladesh has been cancelled after protests from an Islamic group, officials said.
Sahabuddin Ahmed, general secretary of the Bangladesh Swimming Federation, said officials agreed to cancel the competition late Monday after more than a thousand demonstrators took to the streets of the host town Chandpur in southern Bangladesh.
"The local administration of Chandpur district decided to cancel due to threats from an Islamic group," Ahmed told AFP.
The Islamic group, the Anti-Islamic Activities Prevention Committee, had branded the event to be "un-Islamic" and threatened to shut-down the whole area, he said.
A message received from the group demanded that women should not be allowed to take part in the Eighth National Long-distance Swimming Competition out of respect for the religious feelings of the country's more than 100 million Muslims. The men's competition is due to go ahead as scheduled.
"We had to compromise in order to maintain a peaceful atmosphere here," Taherul Islam, the chief district administrator told AFP.
Four women had hoped to take part in the event.
State Minister for Youth and Sports Fazlur Rahman said he hoped the competition could be rearranged within a few months.
"We want to do many things in Bangladesh but because of our social infrastructure sometimes we have no other choice but to compromise. I am hopeful that this will not be the same forever," Rahman said.
A similar event was held without disruption last year.
In July, however, Bangladesh's first women's wrestling competition was cancelled after threats from Islamic groups.
Sporting officials described the cancellation as a "triumph for fundamentalism".