Two cricket teams have been booked and several players were reportedly detained for standing in honour of Pakistan National Anthem being played before the start of a match in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
The action was taken after a video of the incident, which took place on January 3, went viral on social media.
In the video, two cricket teams – one wearing green and another white – are purportedly seen standing in attention in two lines on either side of the pitch as ‘Pak Sarzameen’ played in the background. The players bowed their heads as the loudspeakers blurted the neighbouring country’s anthem.
Police confirmed that they have booked the two teams but did not give details about the number of people who were arrested or the identity of the teams. Local reports said that four persons have been arrested.
“The teams have been booked,” said senior superintendent of police Bandipora, Sheikh Zulfikar Azad.
Local news portals reported that the incident took place at the finals of a local cricket tournament in Arin, Bandipora between MCC, Gondipora and Dardpora Cricket Club. The reports said that the police are also looking for the organisers of the match.
This is not the first time that cricket matches have led to arrests in Kashmir.
At-least 11 Kashmiri cricketers were detained in April last year in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district after a video clip had surfaced on social media, showing them wearing the Pakistani team’s jersey with the neighbouring country’s national anthem playing in the background.
This not the first time it has happened, Earlier A viral video of cricketers standing upright while the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir anthem is playing has gone viral. The incident, which took place in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, has prompted the police to initiate a probe.
The video, shot at Pulwama district stadium on Sunday, shows two teams — Shining Stars Pampore and Pulwama Tigers — lined up before the start of the final match of a cricket tournament and the anthem of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) was being played.
The national anthem of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) was played during a local cricket match in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama.
After it went viral on the social media, police took cognisance and started a probe.
“Police has taken cognisance of the video and started investigation,” an official said.
Posters of slain militants were also allegedly put up around the ground while post-match awards were named after some of the slain ultras.
The Pulwama stadium where the cricket match was being played is adjacent to the Degree College, which has been at the centre of the ongoing student protests in the Valley.
The incident comes one-and-a-half-month after a video showing members of two local cricket teams, dressed in Pakistani team uniform, singing the national anthem of the neighbouring country before the start of a match.
Soon after the video went viral, the state swung into action.
