Srinagar: Pakistani cricketers Shadab Khan, Haris Rauf, Muhammad Nawaz and others expressed solidarity with Palestine on Wednesday by sharing pictures of the Palestinian flag on their social media accounts, as casualties mount in Gaza following a rise in hostilities in the Middle East.
At least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and over 9,500 injured since Oct. 7.
Pakistan’s national cricket team is currently in India for the ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 tournament.
As casualties mount in Gaza, Khan, Rauf, Nawaz and spinner Usama Mir took to their X (formerly Twitter) accounts and posted pictures of the Palestinian flag.
Earlier, Pakistan’s wicket-keeper batter Muhammad Rizwan dedicated his match-winning century against Sri Lanka on Oct. 11 to the people of Gaza. “This was for our brothers and sisters in Gaza,” Rizwan had written on his X account.
Following this, the Indian media ran several stories against Rizwan. This was followed by brutal online trolling and slogans were also raised against him upon his return to the pavallion during the India Pakistan clash in Ahmedabad Gujarat.
Pakistan, who won their opening two matches of the World Cup tournament against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka, were defeated by India on Saturday in a match that turned out to be a one-sided affair. The green shirts next take on Australia in Bengaluru on Oct. 20 in a key clash of the World Cup tournament.
