India rules out cricket with Pakistan till support for terror continues

New York: External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar has ruled out the possibility of any cricketing ties with Pakistan saying New Delhi cannot take a "tea break" and say "let us go and play cricket" while Islamabad continues to support terror groups.

Speaking in New York at an event on Wednesday, Jaishankar pointed out, "The dominant narrative of the relationship between New Delhi and Islamabad is terrorism, suicide bombings, violence and then you say okay guys tea break, let us go and play cricket."

He highlighted the recent terror attacks in India including Uri, Pathankot and Pulwama and said, "It is a very hard narrative to sell to people. It's a democracy, sentiments do matter and one message I don't want to give, you do terrorism by night, and its business as usual during the day." He asserted, "It is very difficult in real life to separate issues." India has been focusing on the issue of counter-terror and calling the world to speak in one voice on the issue.

Slamming Islamabad, the minister added, "You have terrorism in different parts of the world but there is no part where a country uses it consciously as a large scale industry against its neighbour." This is the second time in a week that the External Affairs Minister has slammed Pakistan in New York at an event.

Pakistan has been supporting anti-India terror groups for the last several decades and fanning separatist activities in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly the Valley. Pakistani establishments including its Army has been actively abetting and helping terror groups breach the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border to launch attacks against India.

Special Forces of the Indian Army had conducted surgical strikes on many terror launch pads inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on September 29, 2016, to avenge the attack on Uri garrison in which at least 19 soldiers were martyred. Almost three years later, Pakistani terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) carried out a suicide bomb attack on a convoy of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Pulwama killing 40 security personnel which led to the Indian Air Force bombing terror camps in Pakistan's Balakot on February 26, 2019.