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Suggested by Dunya News, #KashmirIsPakistan trends top on Twitter

Dunya News

Team Dunya forced the Indian panel on defensive, Wajahat S Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed were clinical

LAHORE: (Web Desk) - Dunya News on Friday arranged a show with the Indian channel IBN-7 and decided to send the message across the country and beyond the borders that #KashmirIsPakistan. Twitterati and #TeamDunya were clinical in their approach and while the Twitterati trended #KashmirIsPakistan on top, the Pakistani panelists n the show including Iftikhar Ahmad, Wajahat Saeed Khan, Air Vice Marshal (r) Shahid Latif, Haroon ur-Rasheed and Jamaat Islami (JI) leader Fareed Paracha proved too good for the Indian panelists.

Habib Akram, host of Dunya News’ program Khabar Yeh Hai, moderated the discussion from Pakistan’s side while Sumit Wasti moderated the discussion from the Indian side. Although the IBN-7 panel included Tarek Fatah, host of Dunya News’ program ‘Badal Dou’ Iftikhar Ahmad snubbed him by reminding him that he is a run-away Canadian national and has no right to discuss Pakistan’s internal issues when he himself didn’t have the guts to fight the problems of Pakistan while staying in Pakistan.

Pakistani panelists raised extremely valid questions to which the Indian panel had no answer. When Wajahat Saeed Khan, Chief National Security Correspondent for Dunya News, asked a simple question, challenging the Indian panel to answer with logic, that Pakistan has been meeting Hurriyet leaders for the last 22 years then why did India cancel the talks on this issue now, Indian panel was clueless. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader resorted to the usual rhetoric, baselessly alleging Pakistan of promoting terrorism while Pakistan itself fights terrorism.

Senior journalist Haroon ur-Rasheed, strategic analyst Shahid Latif and Fareed Paracha countered the Indian arguments with logic and facts, forcing the other side to go on defensive.

While all this discussion was going on, Twitterati in Pakistan were trending #KashmirIsPakistan, as suggested by Dunya News. Within a few minutes, the hash-tag started trending throughout the country and was on top of the trends in Pakistan within almost no time.

Indian government cancelled the Foreign Advisers level talks with Pakistan on Friday evening. These talks were scheduled to take place on August 23 but Indian government called them off, saying that Pakistan s Foreign Adviser Sartaj Aziz will not be allowed to meet Hurriyet leaders.

Dunya News started to use #KashmirIsPakistan in response to Indian government s decision and within next few minutes, the hash-tag was trending on top.

Pakistani tweeps tweeted with #KashmirIsPakistan to express their feelings about Pakistan s relationship with Kashmir.

They criticized India for calling the talks off just because Pakistan wanted to take the Hurriyet leaders into confidence before going into talks with the Indian government.

Tweeps reminded India that Amnesty International has repeatedly highlighted the violations of human rights by India in Kashmir.

Some said that India was afraid of Pakistan on Kashmir issue. Of course, India knows it is committing atrocities in the valley.

This is what happens to Kashmiri Muslims in India. How can India claim Kashmir to be an integral part after seeing this?

Hoisting of Pakistan flags in Kashmir has become a regular feature throughout the valleys now. This is what the voice of the people is. #KashmirIsPakistan

And some reminded India of how they had got afraid of a Pakistani bird. A pigeon, it was.

People thanked Dunya News for highlighting the issue and leading from the front by suggesting the hash-tag. Meanwhile, they reminded Indians that it was BJP which had first allowed Pakistan the opportunity to officially declare its nuclear prowess and now the same BJP government has allowed us to highlight the Kashmir issue before the world by calling off the talks on Kashmir issue.

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