Ignoring Pak cricketers in IPL-3 auction ‘insult’: Jamaat-e-Islami chief

Reacting strongly to the treatment meted out to Pakistani cricketers during the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) auction, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Syed Munawar Hasan has said it was an ‘insult’ to ignore these players.

No player from Pakistan was picked up during the IPL 3 auction in Mumbai on Tuesday. Flambouyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi and left-arm pacer Sohail Tanvir came under the hammer but had no takers.

Hasan said the incident is also a ‘slap on the face of those striving for confidence building between the two countries through artificial means.’

“This has proved that India can never be sincere towards Pakistan,” The News quoted Hasan, as saying.

He went to the extreme of blaming India for the terror attack on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket in Lahore in March, 2009.

 “India had attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in a bid to hurt cricket in Pakistan and to bring the country a bad name,” he said.

Hasan demanded the government of breaking all diplomatic ties with New Delhi, saying it has been conspiring against Islamabad malign its international image.

“India is continuing brutalities in Kashmir and it is also denying this country its share in rivers’ water to convert this country into a desert. India’s aggressive activities are continuing on the Line of Control (LoC) while the Indian army chief is threatening of using nuclear bomb against Pakistan thus wiping it out within minutes,” he added.