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<\/p>\nListen\u00a0to\u00a0article<\/p>\n
Tensions following the recent attack in Pahalgam, located in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), have spilled over to social media, where not only citizens but also former cricketers from both India and Pakistan have become engaged in a war of words.<\/p>\n
The interaction began when former Pakistan cricket captain Shahid Afridi made sharp remarks on a local TV programme, criticising the Indian military\u2019s performance in Kashmir.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the Pahalgam incident, Afridi questioned how such an event could occur despite the presence of what he described as \u201c800,000 Indian troops\u201d in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf even a firecracker goes off in India, the blame is placed on Pakistan,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have eight lakh soldiers stationed in Kashmir and yet such incidents happen \u2014 this only means you\u2019re incompetent and useless.\u201d<\/p>\n
His comments quickly gained traction on Indian media and triggered a strong reaction from former Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan. Taking to social media platform X, Dhawan fired back at Afridi, referencing India\u2019s victory in the Kargil conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe defeated you in Kargil, how much lower will you stoop?\u201d Dhawan wrote. \u201cInstead of making baseless comments, focus on your own country\u2019s development.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The spat intensified on Tuesday when Afridi responded with a touch of sarcasm. Posting a photo of himself in military-style attire while holding a cup of tea, he wrote on X, \u201cForget winning or losing \u2014 come, let me serve you some tea, Shikhar,\u201d adding the hashtag #FantasticTea.<\/p>\n
The hashtag #FantasticTea is a reference to a widely publicised incident on February 27, 2019, when Pakistan shot down two Indian aircraft that had violated its airspace and captured Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.<\/p>\n
During his detention, a video showed a Pakistani officer politely asking, \u201cI hope you like the tea?\u201d to which Abhinandan calmly replied, \u201cThe tea is fantastic, thank you.\u201d\u00a0The clip quickly went viral and became a symbol of Pakistan\u2019s media narrative surrounding the incident.<\/p>\n
Although Abhinandan was released and returned to India as a goodwill gesture, the moment, and the phrase, has since become a long-running meme in Pakistan, still frequently referenced in both political and pop culture contexts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen\u00a0to\u00a0article Tensions following the recent attack in Pahalgam, located in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4101],"tags":[1406,30563,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-61643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-shahid-afridi","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114424267650690466","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}