A plane carrying the slogan “Justice for Kashmir”,followed by another plane with the slogan “India Stop Genocide & FreeKashmir” were seen flying over the Headingley Cricket Ground as India tookon Sri Lanka in their final group stage game in the World Cup on Saturday.
It was further followed by another plane which asked peopleto stop mob lynching in India.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is unhappy and hasspoken to the police in Manchester and Birmingham and it has been ensured thatit will be a no-flying zone during the course of the semifinals in the twocities.
Commenting on the matter in Headingley, ICC said in arelease: “We are incredibly disappointed this has happened again. We donot condone any sort of political messages at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.Throughout the tournament we have worked with local police forces around thecountry to prevent this type of protests occurring. After the previous incident,we were assured by West Yorkshire Police there would not be repeat of thisissue, so we are very dissatisfied it has happened again.”
On June 29 during the match between Pakistan andAfghanistan, a plane with a banner reading “Justice for Balochistan”flew over the same stadium.
Reacting to the June 29 incident, the International CricketCouncil (ICC) had said: “We do not condone any sort of political messagesat the ICC Men”s Cricket World Cup and will work with West Yorkshire police todeal with and understand why this has happened and to ensure it does not happenagain.”