'Just a game' as fans make peace after India's big win over Pakistan

Agencies
June 17, 2019

Manchester (United Kingdom), Jun 17: Fans held contrasting emotions after India's World Cup thrashing of Pakistan on Sunday, but supporters of both teams agreed their volatile rivalry should be left to the cricket field.

India extended their unbeaten World Cup run against Pakistan to seven matches after their 89-run victory via DLS method in Manchester.

Rohit Sharma's 140 off 113 balls set up the victory for the two-time champions after they posted 336 for five in 50 overs.

Indian bowlers, led by Kuldeep Yadav, kept down Pakistan to 212 for six in their revised chase of 302 in 40 overs.

The match was watched by a passionate capacity crowd at Old Trafford and an estimated television audience of around one billion.

But for all the energy poured into the sporting grudge match, fans were keen that the rivalry between the feuding countries shouldn't boil over.

"India and Pakistan have been rivals for long in the cricket field but we have to move on from the hatred. This is not war, so take it as a game," Amit Jain, an Indian at the match told AFP.

"All those news channels that were trying to spread hate are looking for some other news now. This is done and dusted for them. So we should realise this and grow up," the 43-year-old London businessman added.

Most of the Pakistan supporters had already left Old Trafford after their team were 166 for six in 35 overs when rain interrupted play.

The game resumed with Pakistan needing 136 in five overs and the writing was on the wall as India closed out a deserved win.

Peace is what we need

"India is a great team, no doubt about it and (Virat) Kohli a man who leads from the front. We knew we had little chance but had to keep are morale up by saying that we are going to win," said Ashraf Ali, a dejected Pakistan fan.

"But it was fun sitting along side our Indian friends and watching a good game of cricket. That's how it should be. Peace is what we need."

Back home in India and Pakistan it was approaching midnight by the time the game ended.

In India there were joyous celebrations among the depleted crowd of a few hundred fans who had stayed until the end in the northern city of Gurgaon.

Satyam Mishra, a fan in Gurgaon, said after the match: "Today the josh (patriotic enthusiasm) is at the top of the level. I can't express in words."

Fans in Islamabad braved the heat to watch the match on big screens in a public park, but they began to thin out rapidly as Pakistan's loss became inevitable.

"My Pakistani patriot tweet for the day: It is just a game," tweeted former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani.

Others were less sanguine. "My thoughts and prayers goes out to the television sets across Pakistan," tweeted one user along with a photograph of a man aiming an automatic weapon at a TV set airing the match.

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News Network
November 12,2024

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The UN humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon has warned that the “picture of life in Lebanon remains grim,” highlighting an "alarming" level of human suffering and significant humanitarian consequences due to the ongoing Israeli carnage.

Imran Riza, the UN Deputy Special Coordinator and Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL), provided a stark overview of the Arab country's dire circumstances in a statement released on Monday.

“The current picture of life in Lebanon remains grim. Yesterday, airstrikes reportedly killed 23 people, including seven children, in the village of Aalmat in Mount Lebanon,” Riza said on X.

An airstrike in the city of Tyre on the same day resulted in the tragic deaths of five siblings from a single family, all of whom had special needs, according to his statement.

He added that in the last week, Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 241 individuals and left 642 others injured in Lebanon, as reported by the Ministry of Health.

“In the past month, more than 185,000 people have fled their homes in their search for safety within the country, bringing the total to over 870,000 people internally displaced,” Riza said

The UN official highlighted that numerous individuals, including the elderly and those with health issues, are staying behind while witnessing the ruins of their ancestral homes.

He urged for the swift safeguarding of civilian people and infrastructure, emphasizing the necessity to uphold international humanitarian law and end the ongoing violence.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that Israeli forces bombed a house in the town of Maydoun in Bekaa on Monday night, killing three people and destroying the house.

Earlier, Israel bombed the northern town of Ain Yaaqoub, killing at least 14 people.

The killings came as Israeli military continued to pound Lebanon, bombing shops selling electrical appliances in the southern city of Tyre and carrying out air raids on the towns of Shamshtar in eastern Baalbek and Roumine in southern Nabatieh.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said Israeli attacks killed at least 54 people across the country on Monday.

Israel’s merciless attacks continue despite calls from the UN Security Council for an immediate ceasefire and directives from the International Court of Justice urging measures to prevent genocide and alleviate the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and Lebanon.

In Lebanon, at least 3,243 people have been killed and 14,134 others wounded in Israeli attacks since the war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023.

The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah opened a support front for Palestinians in Gaza only a day after the Israeli regime unleashed its genocidal war on the besieged territory.

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News Network
November 12,2024

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The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement says its fighters have killed at least 20 Israeli soldiers in northern parts of the besieged Gaza Strip in just two days, in retaliation for the occupying regime’s genocidal war on the Palestinian territory.

In a statement on Monday evening, Hamas said that fighters of its military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, “killed at least five occupation soldiers” in northern parts of the coastal territory earlier in the day.

It added that Hamas fighters also killed 15 Israeli soldiers in the war-ravaged region on Sunday.

The resistance movement’s “qualitative operation … confirms once again the failure of the criminal Zionist entity to suppress and eradicate the Palestinian resistance, which continues to direct qualitative strikes against its terrorist soldiers,” Hamas further said on its Telegram channel.

Palestinians have increased their resistance operations in the face of intensified Israeli aggression in northern Gaza that has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 over the past weeks.

“Our valiant resistance is waging a war of attrition with the criminal enemy, inflicting daily losses on its soldiers and vehicles, and all of [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s bets and dreams of achieving any of his goals are failing,” the Gaza-based resistance movement added.

Hamas also vowed that Israel’s ongoing crimes and aggression against Gaza would be met with increased resistance and painful strikes, which will continue until the aggression against Palestinians ends and the regime fully withdraws from the blockaded territory.

As the war in Gaza enters its 14th month, the Health Ministry reports that Israeli attacks have killed at least 43,603 Palestinians and wounded 102,929 others.

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News Network
November 15,2024

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Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has killed or captured 69 terrorists linked to the Israeli spy agency Mossad during a major counterterrorism drill in the country's southeast, its spokesman says.  

General Ahmad Shafaei, the spokesman for the “Martyrs of Security” drill, said Friday that a total of 23 terrorists have been killed and another 46 arrested in various clean-up operations ever since the IRGC Ground Force launched it in the Sistan and Baluchestan province on November 1.

Seven terrorists have also turned themselves in during the period.

“The undeniable fact about terrorists is that they rely on arrogant powers, particularly the intelligence service of the wicked and vicious Zionist regime," Shafaei said.

“Unfortunately, weapons and munitions at terrorists’ disposal are among the most sophisticated ones in the world. This accounts for their heavy dependence.” 

The official stated that several members of the disbanded terror teams were non-Iranian nationals, who had been hired by foreign intelligence agencies to carry out acts of sabotage and terror inside Iran.

In a most recent operation, six terrorists were arrested and four others were eliminated, three of whom were non-Iranians, he added. 

On October 26, ten members of Iran's law enforcement forces were killed in a terrorist attack in the Gohar Kuh district of Taftan in the Sistan and Baluchestan province.

The so-called Jaish al-Adl terrorist group claimed responsibility for the assault, which was one of the deadliest in the province in recent months.

The group has carried out numerous terrorist attacks in Iran, primarily in Sistan and Baluchestan.

Its tactics include the abduction of border guards as well as targeting civilians and police stations within the province to incite chaos and disorder.

In January, Iran launched a military operation during which the headquarters of the Pakistan-based terrorist group was targeted in missile strikes, destroying its infrastructure.

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