Playing cricket with Pakistan is like ‘insulting’ Palalgam victims: AAP

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) held a demonstration on Sunday to protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre for allowing India to play against Pakistan in the ongoing Asia Cup cricket tournament in Dubai, citing the recent Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 lives.

Calling it an “insult” to those who were killed in the terrorist attack, AAP urged the people to boycott the Sunday evening match between the two neighbouring countries.

AAP’s national convener wrote on X: “Playing a match with Pakistan is treason against the country. Every Indian is deeply angry about it.”

Leader of the Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Atishi, said playing cricket with Pakistan, a country that shelters terrorists, is an “insult to India’s martyrs”.

As part of the demonstration, AAP women workers smashed a TV to register their protest.

The Sunday’s match is the first between the traditional rivals since the military conflict in May, when India launched strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan-controlled territories in response to the dastardly terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22.

At a media interaction, AAP MP Sanjay Singh said, “In Pahalgam, our sisters’ sindoor was snatched away. The Centre said terrorists from Pakistan carried this out. After that, Operation Sindoor was launched. Our soldiers were martyred, civilians were killed, and even an Additional Deputy Commissioner was martyred. How can we play cricket with the same Pakistan we are fighting against?”

Mr. Singh alleged that the BJP talks about patriotism, but for it, “business comes first, and the nation later”.

Several opposition parties have also protested against the match.