Former Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Akhtar’s brother Shahid Akhtar passed away 3 days back. Shahid Akhtar’s death was reportedly due to a cardiac arrest. Now, the visuals 3from his funeral has caused an uproar in India. At his funeral, reportedly, individuals from the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML) were present, an organisation that is a proxy of terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Among those present at the funeral from PMML were their Islamabad Chief Inam-ur-Rehman Kamboh, along with Abdullah Toor, PMML’s deputy general secretary, Hafiz Umar PMML’s zonal general secretary, and Amjad Bhatti, chairman of the Khidmat Committee.
While there is no evidence that Shoaib Akhtar invited these individuals personally or has any links to them, their presence at the funeral of speedster’s brother has raised questions about the relations between the Akhtar family and the LeT proxy. It also raises questions about how members of such organisations can freely move in public in Pakistan, attending such events.
Interestingly, LeT believes in the idea of Ghazwa-e-Hind, a holy war against India, an idea previously spoken about by Shoaib Akhtar as well. In an old video, Akhtar can be heard saying, “Ghazwa e Hind is mentioned in our sacred books. We will first capture Kashmir and then invade India from all sides for Ghazwa e Hind.”
“Ghazwa e Hind is mentioned in our sacred books. We will first capture Kashmir and then invade India from all sides for Ghazwa e Hind”
– Shoaib Akhtar (descendant of a Hindu Gujjar)
After all cricket & art have no boundaries. After Ghazwa e Hind, India will have no boundaries! pic.twitter.com/sRlYml6xow— Pakistan Untold (@pakistan_untold) December 18, 2020
With such a history of statements from Shoaib Akhtar, presence of LeT proxies at a family event of the cricketer raises more than a few questions.
Notably, Shoaib Akhtar is not the only ex-Pakistani cricketers about whom questions about their links with terrorists and their proxies have been raised.
Former Pakistan Captain and Prime Minister Imran Khan was dubbed ‘Taliban Khan’ after he repeatedly advocated talks with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, a group that has carried out several terror attacks in Pakistan itself.
Another former Pakistan cricketer Shahid Afridi has even a family connection. His cousin Shaquib was killed in an encounter with the BSF on September 7, 2003. BSF shared that Shaquib was a battalion commander of the Harkat-ul-Ansar, which later became Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Talking about ex-Pakistani cricketers, lets not forget Javed Miandad, whose son Junaid Miandad, is married to Mahrukh Ibrahim, the daughter of the Indian-born narcoterrorist and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
All these connections of ex-Pakistani cricketers with terrorists do raise concern about the connections of these players with extremists, but then, maybe it is considered normal in Pakistan.
