Khawaja Asif slams Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi for cancelling Karachi trip

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Asif on Saturday slammed Bollywood veterans Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi for cancelling Karachi trip in the aftermath of the attack in Indian-occupied Kashmir's Palwama district.

Quoting Javed Akhtar's tweet announcing that he and Shabana have cancelled their trip, Asif wrote, "The most privileged of Indian Muslims protecting status and being apologetic about their identities, their conscience unmoved by atrocities endured daily by Kashmiris. Thousands blinded, martyred and orphaned... to them this is not grim or outrageous.

A day earlier, Akhtar to Twitter and said, "Karachi art council had invited Shabana and me for a two day lit conference about Kaifi Azmi and his poetry. We have cancelled that. In 1965 during the indo Pak war Kaifi saheb had written a poem: ‘Aur Phir Krishan Ne Arjun Se Kaha’.”

Shabana and Akhtar were scheduled to attend a conference in Karachi in honour of the former’s father, the celebrated Indian Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi. The conference is scheduled from February 23 to 24 at the Arts Council of Karachi.

At least 44 Indian paramilitary soldiers were killed on Thursday in Srinagar-Jammu Highway in Awantipora area of Pulwama district. The soldiers were killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off as a convoy of military vehicles drove by, some 20 kilometres from the main city of Srinagar.