Pakistan T20 victory trigger attacks on Lankan students

Mumbai. Various parts of India saw Sri Lankan students and tourists being physically assaulted and roughed up by unidentified men and boys, apparently after Sri Lanka lost to Pakistan in the final match of the international T20 World Cup Cricket championship. Reports suggest that most of the Indians are fuming after Pakistan won the cup, for which they felt India were the favorites. It is feared that more such attacks could take place in coming days. Government has appealed for calm and restraint.

“We understand the sentiments of the public but public display of such sentiments are not good. Tomorrow Australia can come up with some similar explanation for attacks on Indian students and internationally our position would be weakened. Pakistan too can argue that India is not a safe country for cricket lovers and this could hamper our cricket economy. People must stop these attacks immediately else government would have to take some strong steps.” union Home Minister P Chidambaram told.

Although no grievous or fatal injuries were reported, Sri Lankan students and tourists in various parts of India were scared to venture out for the next few days. Many of them are in state of Haryana shock and disbelief.

“We never had to face any problems till date. We were a little bit concerned when Sri Lankan forces had started killing Tamil rebels, but fortunately nothing happened even then. This was completely unexpected and outrageous. We were already depressed at Sri Lanka losing in the final, and then suddenly some guys came around and started beating us, accusing us of letting Pakistan win. It was horrible.” Zorseroya Maarkhake, a Sri Lankan student studying Comparative Cultures at Mumbai University, told Faking News.

Security was beefed up at BCCI headquarters too as some reports suggested that Indian fans were upset with the top governing body’s decision to grant amnesty to all ICL players, which inspired Pakistani all rounder Abdul Razzak to come back to the national team and play an important role in his team’s victory. No attacks on any BCCI official or building were reported till the reports last came in.

In a related incident, a man in Bhopal fatally injured his pet dog in fury because the dog barked each time Shahid Afridi hit a boundary or six. The man thought that the dog was saying “boom boom” instead of “bhoo bhoo” and applauding Afridi, and hit the poor little animal with his cricket bat. Now the man is repentant as he thinks that his dog might have been upset as well and abusing Afridi. Doctors have declared the dog to be out of danger but diagnosed the man with symptoms of depression.