Top cricketers lash out at Shahid Afridi for Kashmir tweet

NEW DELHI: Top Indian cricketers, including captain Virat Kohli, on Wednesday lashed out at Shahid Afridi for his remarks urging the United Nations (UN) to intervene in "Indian Occupied Kashmir" to stop the killing of "innocents".

Captain Virat Kohli stressed that he could "never support" anything that harms the interests of India.

"As an Indian you want to express what is best for your nation and my interests are always for the benefit of our nation. If anything opposes it, I would never support it for sure," ANI quoted Kohli as saying.

"But having said that, it's a very personal choice for someone to comment about certain issues. Unless I have total knowledge of the issues and the intricacies of it I don't engage in it but definitely your priority stays with your nation," he added.

World Cup-winning former captain Kapil Dev wondered why Afridi was even receiving importance.

"Who is he? Why are we giving importance to him? We should not be giving importance to certain people," he said.

Suresh Raina reiterated that "Kashmir is an integral part of India and will remain so always."

"Kashmir is the pious land where my forefathers were born. I hope @SAfridiOfficial bhai asks Pakistan Army to stop terrorism and proxy war in our Kashmir. We want peace, not bloodshed and violence," he wrote.


Yesterday, Gambhir slammed Afridi for his tweet on Kashmir, saying that the Pakistani cricketer "is, as usual, celebrating a dismissal off a no-ball".


Afridi had, in a tweet on Tuesday, condemned the recent clampdown on terrorists in the Kashmir Valley and had urged the UN to intervene in the matter.


Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, too, had posted a similar tweet: "The people of Pakistan stand with the Kashmiris democratic struggle for self-determination."

On Sunday, 12 terrorists were killed in the Valley in one of the biggest security operations in recent history.

The operations rendered a severe dent to terror groups such as Hizbul Mujahideen and the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

In the operations conducted over the weekend in three separate locations in the Valley, 12 terrorists were killed, one was captured alive and four civilians lost their lives in the ensuing stone-pelting. Three jawans were also martyred in the gun battle with the terrorists.


(With inputs from agencies)