Track record of the main spoiler
INDIAN jitters over its excesses in its occupied portion of the State of Jammu and Kashmir cannot be better exemplified than by its denial to bury the legendary Hurriyat Leader Ali Geelani in the Martyrs Graveyard in Srinagar as willed by the departed leader, as his body wrapped in the Pakistan Flag was whisked away by the Indian occupation forces amid freedom slogans, and buried in the Hyderpura area in Srinagar in the thick of the night, as the usurpers fear the dead; allowing only his close relatives to join the last rites.
This has sent a wave of anguish and anger among Kashmiris and their sympathizers worldwide holding protest demonstrations in the valley as well as across the world, with Syed Ali Geelani’s mortal remains likely to be re-buried in the martyrs abode in the days to come.
Library footage of the departed soul at various gatherings; in custody most of his lifetime, vividly shows the fearless manner in which Syed Ali Geelani weathered his detentions and looked the Indian authorities squarely in the eye in person and through the airwaves declaring that he was not an Indian; chanting slogans in orchestration with the thronging crowds that Kashmiris were Pakistanis and Pakistan was their ultimate homeland.
And why not, since Indian hands were drenched in the blood of the innocent and their atrocities in the occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir a shameless open book; when they shoot a father and make his child sit on his slain chest; tie a Muslim youth to the bonnet of an Army jeep as a human shield, break into homes and pick up their youth and declare them gone missing, set houses on fire, rape and molest their women, they obviously do not have a conscience or else they would never be able to live them down and die a hundred death each day themselves.
No wonder they resort to false flag operations to keep their disinformation campaign alive against Pakistan’s alleged involvement in everything foul, all of which stands internationally exposed as their own handiwork; be they the New Delhi Parliament building, Mumbai, Uri, Pathankot attacks or a couple of years ago the Pulwama episode in which it paid to get ambushed and killed dozens of its own men in uniform, followed by their so-called surgical strike inside Pakistan-administered Balakot claiming to have taken out a [non-existent] militant training camp.
It actually accounted for a fatally injured crow and a few slain trees, only to suffer a humiliating counter attack losing two fighter aircrafts to Pakistan and a Pilot taken captive.
The EU Disinfolab Chronicle report about Indian Operations against China and Pakistan being amongst latest revelations about the largest democracy gone sour, India is so obsessed with Pakistan that besides openly bragging about dismembering and destabilizing it and claiming to have played a role in keeping Pakistan in the FATF grey list, India has not even spared the sports arena.
As Pakistan ruled the cricketing world once upon a time, Indian agents were let loose upon them for match-fixing to which shining stars like pacers Amir and Asif, and opening batters Salman Butt and Sharjeel Khan fell foul and not only ruined their own career but brought a bad name to Pakistani Cricket, which was the Indian objective.
Not resting at that, concurrent to this campaign India continued its State Terrorism inside Pakistan; infiltrating Pakistan through various agents and carrying out series of bomb blasts and suicide attacks blaming it on separatist elements within Pakistan.
But Kalbhoshan Yadav, an active serving Naval Officer operating in Pakistan since 2003 was caught, confessed and convicted, and is currently awaiting execution in Pakistan; exploding the Indian plans and machinations.
Indian RAW failing to persuade Sri Lankan Cricket Team from abandoning its tour of Pakistan in 2009, programmed to attack the visitors and achieved the objective of getting International Cricket banned in Pakistan; the ICC declaring the country unsafe.
But proverbial justice takes its own course, as Pakistan not losing heart, while battling incursions on its soil and normalizing the security front, took the initiative of launching Pakistan Premier League for the game of cricket; raising franchises and drafting international players by commencing its initial editions in the Gulf to start with, and gradually shifting it back home, as the situation got normalized by Pakistan’s diligent law-enforcing Agencies to the satisfaction of the international community.
The credit for this initiative must go to NajamSethi its mentor who worked tirelessly, and to the support, courage and objectivity displayed by international players as well as the ICC, to make the PPL work and become a resounding success.
India went so low as to create hurdles for sportsmen; blackmailing international cricketers dissuading them from joining the inaugural Edition of Azad Kashmir Premier League, threatening exclusion from the highly paid Indian Premier League, anyone participating in the AK Premier League; pathetically politicizing a purely sporting event.
Not stopping at that, a security threat to the Kiwis already in Pakistan for their series caused them to abandon the tour minutes before the first match, and England followed suit cancelling their tour of Pakistan scheduled soon after, only to be traced back to India engineering the hoax threat.
Salutations and credit for resumption of International Cricketing relations with Pakistan once again must go to Sri Lanka for being the first team to resume visiting Pakistan in spite of having been the target initially in 2009.
With various hick-ups in the entire process, as cricket in Pakistan started to show its metal once again, Pakistan comprehensively beat its arch rivals India in the Champions Trophy Finals in 2017 in England when placed 8th in ODI ranking at the start of the tournament with Mohammad Aamir delivering the decisive blow sending the Indian top order packing; something that Shaheen Afridi did in its highly billed opening encounter against India in the current T20 World Cup 2021; breaking the jinx of never winning against them in World Cup encounters.
But while Virat Kohli demonstrated grace in greeting his opposing Skipper Babar Azam and hugging Rizwan, his countrymen disgraced themselves by ridiculing and castigating their leading wicket-taker Mohammad Shami since he happened to be a Muslim besides physical torturing Kashmiris for celebrating the Pakistan win in the occupied territory.
Pakistanis also went somewhat overboard in their celebrations with some uncalled for adjectives in describing the Indian defeat; as if they had won the Kashmir War.
—The writer is a media professional, member of Pioneering team of PTV and a veteran ex Director Programmes.
