Indian cricketers including captain Virat Kohli lashed out at Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi for his remark urging the United Nation (UN) to intervene in “Indian Occupied Kashmir” to stop the killing of “innocents”.
Captain Virat Kohli stressed out that he could ‘’never support” anything that opposes the countries interest.
"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," said Kohli.
"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.
The World Cup-winning former captain Kapil Dev also came out in support of the nation.
"Who is he? Why are we giving importance to him? We should not be giving importance to certain people," he said.
Suresh Raina restated 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.
Gambhir also slammed Afridi for his tweet on Kashmir, saying that Afridi “is celebrating a dismissal off a no-ball”.
Afridi tweeted on Tuesday, condemned the recent crackdown 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 operation rendered a severe dent to terror groups such as Hizbul Mujahideen and the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
In the operation 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.