A three-week-long joint military exercise involving Turkish and Pakistani Special Forces began in northwestern Pakistan on 09-02-2021.
The opening ceremony of the exercise ATATURK-XI 2021 was held at the Pakistani military's Special Service headquarters in Tarbela, located in Khyber Pakhtunkwa province that borders neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistan-Turkish joint military exercise 2021 begin on February 9, 2021
When the reporting verb is in the past (said) and the direct speech is in the present indefinite tense (simple present tense), then the indirect (reported) speech will change into the past indefinite tense.
Present Indefinite Tense (do play) > Past Indefinite Tense (played).
And if the sentence is interrogative, we use the reporting verbs – asked, enquired, etc