Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Wednesday said a threat to New Zealand's cricket team that prompted them to call off a tour of Pakistan came in an email that originated in India.

New Zealand's cricket squad arrived home on Wednesday after abandoning their tour of Pakistan last week citing a security threat. New Zealand Cricket said they were aware of a "specific and credible" threat but did not give details.

Fawad said the threat had come via an email.

"This email was generated from India through a VPN showing the location of Singapore," Fawad told reporters in Islamabad.

India's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to request for comment.

In his press conference, Fawad said the threatening email was sent to New Zealand batsman Martin Guptill's wife, sent from an ID using the Tehreek-e-Labbaik alias. The death threat was issued to the New Zealand batsman in that email.

"The email said that Guptill will be killed while on tour in Pakistan," Fawad said. "After we investigated the ID, it was found that it was created on August 24, 2021 at 01:05am while the email was sent at 11:59am on August 25," he told reporters.

He added the sender used ProtonMail which is a secure service and added that Pakistan asked Interpol to help trace the person behind the email.

He said that despite "all these threats" New Zealand did not cancel their tour and arrived in Pakistan.

He detailed investigating other threats to the team and termed them fake after investigating them.

"I want to remind you that both Pakistan and New Zealand's security agencies decided the threats issued on August 19, 21 and 24 were all fake," he said.

Fawad added that the West Indies team, due to arrive in December, had also been sent a threat that he said was fake.

Shunned by all after a deadly 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore, Pakistan have been trying to woo back top international teams.

New Zealand's withdrawal dealt a massive blow to Pakistan's hopes of staging regular international cricket, with England subsequently calling off their men's and women's tours.