MUMBAI – The ultra-nationalist Indian media took a strong exception to the outburst of former Pakistani skipper Shahid Afridi over the Kashmir issue, alleging that the athlete was an agent of Pakistan’s top spy agency.
According to multiple reports by India’s thriving media industry, the 38-year-old cricketer had links with Inter-Services Intelligence, labelling him as a ‘stooge’ of the intelligence agency.
Though the Indian media outlets tried vehemently to portray Afridi as an ISI agent, what bothered the Pakistani audience was the fact that the journalistic bigwigs of Pakistan’s neighbouring country confused director-general of the Inter-Services Public Relations, Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor with ISI chief.
The shallow research presented as facts by numerous television channels and the subsequent marathons broadcasted actually backfired, with the students of journalism questioning the research capabilities of Indian media outlets.
https://twitter.com/TimesNow/status/981467113930895360
According to a report by Times Now, Afridi had a dinner with Maj Gen General Asif Ghafoor, about whose designation was confused with ISI chief, on March 27 following which he tweeted and termed the situation in Kashmir ‘appaling’.
It is noteworthy that ‘Boom Boom’ roasted the Indian authorities on Tuesday after he decried the killings in Kashmir valley which happened over the weekend.
Soon after Afridi’s tweet, Indian celebrities including Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina and others slammed the player, however, the DG ISPR also responded and bolstered Afridi’s position.
In his series of tweets in Afridi’s favour from his personal Twitter handle, the ISPR chief also responded to an Indian article about the former cricketer being “roasted online”.
https://twitter.com/ndtv/status/981192757019627521
He shared a video of an earlier match in which Afridi led Pakistan to victory against India by hitting two consecutive sixes.
https://twitter.com/peaceforchange/status/981209407970299904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.dailypakistan.com.pk%2Fheadline%2Flocate-fire-locally-dg-ispr-backs-shahid-afridi-in-twitter-tiff-over-indian-aggression-in-kashmir%2F
The general also shared a picture of Afridi engaged in an on-field altercation with Gambhir with the caption, “And that’s the way for you.”
https://twitter.com/peaceforchange/status/981199169250648065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.dailypakistan.com.pk%2Fheadline%2Flocate-fire-locally-dg-ispr-backs-shahid-afridi-in-twitter-tiff-over-indian-aggression-in-kashmir%2F
