Hyderabad: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday slammed the Centre over India vs Pakistan T20 world cup match. "Nine of our soldiers have died in Jammu and Kashmir in encounters with terrorists recently. Civilians have been killed in the union territory. And India is set to play a T20 World Cup match with Pakistan on October 24. Will you play T20? Pakistan is playing 20-20 in Kashmir every day with the lives of the people of India," Owaisi said while addressing a gathering.
He blamed the BJP-led Central government for the recent civilian killings in Kashmir. "Poor workers of Bihar are being killed, targeted killing is being done, what is the Intelligence Bureau and Amit Shah doing? This is a failure of the Centre," he said.
The demands for cancelling India vs Pakistan clash at the ICC world cup have been raised from various quarters after several civilians were killed by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir over the last few days.
Read: PM never speaks on rising fuel prices, China: AIMIM chief Owaisi
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also demanded that the Indian cricket team should opt-out of the match against Pakistan. "We see people being attacked in Kashmir. I'm sure that even the Prime Minister agrees with the stand of not conducting the match as when in Opposition he used to question that when state-sponsored terrorism is taking place in India why should we play cricket with them," AAP MLA Atishi said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Earlier, Union Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Giriraj Singh said that the match between India and Pakistan at the upcoming T20 World Cup 2021 needs to be seriously rethought under the current circumstances. "The match between India and Pakistan in the upcoming T20 World Cup 2021 should be given another thought in the wake of the recent civilian killings in Jammu and Kashmir. The relations between the two countries are not good right now," the minister had told reporters in Jodhpur.
