Will India-Pakistan face each other in the cricket world cup?

India is in a state of mourning after it lost four brave hearts in a recent terrorist encounter operation in Jammu and Kashmir. During such times, when the whole nation is grieving, Indians are demanding for no more cricket matches between India and Pakistan.

Indian and Pakistani teams faced each other recently twice during the ongoing Asia Cup. One match was spoiled by rain, resulting in one point to each team. The second match resulted in Indian Cricket team giving an easy defeat to Pakistan by a whopping 228 runs.

Indians were still celebrating the win of 10 September when they received the news of the death of three officers who lost their lives fighting against terrorists in Anantnag of Kashmir.

The deaths of Indian officers made cricket fans and others questioning the righteousness of the decision to play cricket with the team of a country who is responsible for the deaths of Indian soldiers. Citizens were expressing their opinion on the current situation with the demand for India to not play anymore cricket with Pakistan.

On 15 September, Anurag Thakur, Union minister of Sports, made it clear that The Board of Control for Cricket in India  (BCCI)  is following its previous decision to not play bilateral cricket matches with Pakistan. India and Pakistan have not played bilateral cricket matches since 2012-13. They only face each other in ICC tournaments and Asia Cup.

The minister said "BCCI had decided much earlier that we would not play bilateral matches with Pakistan until they put an end to terrorism, cross-border attacks and infiltration...I think the sentiments of the country and of the public are also the same".

However the minister did not talk about if both the rival countries will play the world cup match which is scheduled for the coming 18 October in Ahmedabad, therefore,  India and Pakistan are most likely to face each other on October 18 in Ahmedabad.

This topic has been gaining strength with politicians coming forward and demanding that India and Pakistan should not play any cricket match on the backdrop of the officers and soldier who lost their lives. IMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi has targeted Modi Government for not taking any strong action against Pakistan and neither cancelling the match. The leader also said that PM Modi is being too soft against Pakistan. He is not as fierce as he was during Pulwama attack. " My question to PM is where is the anger he displayed at the time of Pulwama attack. Our soldiers lost their lives and we are playing cricket in Ahmedabad. This is a failure of the government." said the IMIM Chief.

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