Earlier this week, a Pakistani cricket analyst departed India without warning. She has now denied that she was asked to leave.
Following reaction over her previous social media tweets that were purportedly mocking of India and the Hindu religion, Zainab Abbas, who was covering the Cricket World Cup, departed her position on Monday.
Abbas claimed that the internet responses made her feel “intimidated and scared.”
She also expressed her regret to those who were hurt by the posts.
“I am aware of and sincerely regret the damage my posts have caused. They do not reflect my principles or who I am as a person today, I want to be very clear about that,” Abbas stated in a statement published on X (formerly Twitter).
After outrage, a Pakistani cricket reporter departs from India.
Abbas worked with the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) digital team to cover the World Cup games that were currently taking place. She recently arrived in India and covered Pakistan’s World Cup debut matchup versus the Netherlands. She was scheduled to go to Bengaluru, Chennai, and Ahmedabad for her nation’s other games. On Saturday, Pakistan and India will play in Ahmedabad.
As neighbors who have fought three wars since gaining independence in 1947, the two states have difficult relations.
Abbas came under fire from social media users in India after a lawyer in the nation’s capital of Delhi reported her to the authorities last week for her previous postings.
In his lawsuit, lawyer Vineet Jindal said that Abbas had a personal Twitter account where she had made “derogatory and provocative posts” regarding India and the Hindu faith. X no longer has these posts, but screenshots did become viral.
Additionally, Mr. Jindal quoted a tweet from Abbas’s current X account in which she discussed the right to self-determination for Kashmir. Both India and Pakistan claim the entire Himalayan area, which is divided between them.
The attorney also requested in a letter to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which oversees Indian cricket, that Abbas be terminated from his position as an ICC presenter.
Although there was no “immediate threat to her safety,” Abbas acknowledged that her family and friends in both Pakistan and India were worried. She also acknowledged that she thought she needed some “space and time to reflect on what had happened.”
There were rumors that she had been forced to leave India after she left. The BBC, however, was informed by an ICC official that she had left for personal reasons.