Former Pakistan international cricketer Shahid Afridi has a word of advice for Prime Minister Imran Khan on the Kashmir dispute, which has been ailing Islamabad and New Delhi for decades.
Afridi, while speaking in London at a press meet, said Pakistan should not be demanding Kashmir as it has not been able to handle its own four provinces.
“Pakistan doesn’t need Kashmir; it is not able to even handle the four provinces it has,” Afridi can be heard saying in a video.
The former cricketer also said that people were dying in Kashmir and it was painful to see that happen.
“Say Pakistan doesn’t need Kashmir, don’t give it to India as well, let Kashmir become a country. The people dying there should not die; humanity should stay alive. It pains to see people die there,” he said.
It is, however, not the first time that Afridi has commented on the Kashmir issue. Earlier this year, he tweeted on the matter: “Appalling and worrisome situation ongoing in the Indian Occupied Kashmir. Innocents being shot down by oppressive regime to clamp voice of self determination & independence. Wonder where is the @UN & other int bodies & why aren’t they making efforts to stop this bloodshed?”
India believes that terrorism along the Line of Control (LoC) is being covertly sponsored by Pakistan — a fact established by the presence of terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jamaat-ul Dawah (JuD) in the country.
Pakistan is also known to have been harbouring JuD chief and mastermind of 2008 Mumbai attacks Hafiz Saeed, who is also a United Nations-designated terrorist. The nation has been called out by the UN and the United States several times for having failed to curb terror activities established to have been planned on its soil.
Undergoing a monetary crunch presently, the newly appointed prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, has been looking forward to IMF for a bail-out.
Khan’s another bait has been the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) — a deal with Beijing under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Imran Khan, since taking power in August, 2018, has also been raking up the Kashmir issue, while also mentioning that Pakistan wants friendly relations with India.
