Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has slammed Pakistan for planning a tour of the Champions Trophy in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). He also added that it wasn’t an honest mistake but a deliberate attempt from them as well. The 2025 Champions Trophy is supposed to take place in Pakistan.
In a video shared on his YouTube ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he added, “Why do you do such things? This is a very genuine question. Many people were saying that what India is doing is wrong, that the Indian government should allow the team to go. There was a lot of outcry about this. Pakistan have many cities of their own, including Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan,” he said.
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“You can have the trophy tour there. However, they put one Pakistan city and the rest of the names they put were occupied-Kashmir cities. What are you trying to do? Why did you decide to take it there? Because you want to legitimize that everything is yours, and then the world starts recognizing it. No, you don’t do that. It wasn’t a mistake by mistake,” Chopra again added.
In the same video, Aakash Chopra also shared that the planned trophy tour in PoK backs Team India’s stand not to send their team to Pakistan as well.
“If you are taking the trophy on a tour of occupied Kashmir, it actually validates India’s concern. India has two concerns. I have heard a dossier is being prepared that has the entire story of the last 15 years, which includes the terror attacks that have happened in Pakistan and how many Pakistan-sponsored attacks have happened in Kashmir. We have been hurt quite badly. So it’s being said that all this is there and our players are going to be prime targets. So we don’t believe the Indian players should go there from a security perspective. That’s point one,” Chopra added.
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“Secondly, you need to hit them where it hurts the most. Indian diplomacy also understands that if you are trying to use this as a soft power, that you want to take the trophy on a tour of PoK, your purpose is to legitimize what you are doing. So India have every right to say – ‘Sorry boss, we do not agree one bit’,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
