Plane flies with ‘Justice for Kashmir’ banner over Headingley amidst India-Sri Lanka game

In the sub-continent, cricket is never far from politics. As Team India was fielding against Sri Lanka in their final league game of the 2019 Cricket World Cup at Headingley, Leeds, on Saturday, an airplane flew above the ground. It was a two-seater aeroplane that had attached to its tail a banner saying: “JUSTICE FOR KASHMIR”. The journalists and other media covering the match from the venue spotted that and soon it was all over social media.

It was not known as to who was flying that plane or who had come up with the idea of bringing Kashmir closer to the World Cup venue where India were playing. However, with Pakistan now out of the tournament, it could be one of their disappointed fans who could have found another way to express his sentiments, by choosing the political way. Earlier when another set of neighbours with an existing dispute Afghanistan played Pakistan at the same venue a plane flew over the venue with “Justice for Baluchistan” written behind it.

It was later reported that the plane had violated airspace and didn’t have the permission to fly over Headingley while the two teams were playing the match. While one would’ve expected the British authorities hosting the World Cup to act swiftly and not just nab those involved in the previous instance but also make sure there was no repeat, they weren’t quite effective in enforcing that. It happened not just once but twice during the India vs Sri Lanka game and raises serious concern.

Kashmir had a shadow on India-Pak World Cup clash 

Kashmir has been a major bone of contention between India and Pakistan. Even a few months ago, a suicide terror attack on a convoy of Indian personnel in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir that saw over 40 getting martyred led to serious tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. Air skirmishes followed and in an increasingly heated-up environment, there were even calls in India to boycott the game against Pakistan at Old Trafford on June 16 in protest to the Pulwama attacks.

Here is the first message that read “Justice for Kashmir”

This one just flew over Headingley. #INDvSL pic.twitter.com/JZazCrS52Q

— Karthik Lakshmanan (@lk_karthik) July 6, 2019

Soon enough another one appeared which read “India stop genocide & free Kashmir”.

And now this one. #INDvSL.

Airspace more interesting than match pic.twitter.com/gdvoFkuzmo

— Karthik Lakshmanan (@lk_karthik) July 6, 2019

Here is a video of the same posted by Newsroom Post:

India vs Sri Lanka | Justice for Kashmir Banner Flown During World Cup Game#CWC19 #INDvSL #SLvIND pic.twitter.com/X1DygqnS7C

— Newsroom Post (@NewsroomPostCom) July 6, 2019