The biggest star in Bollywood is under attack from an extremist Hindu party with a history of violence for expressing support for cricketers from Pakistan, India’s arch rival. Shahrukh Khan, a Muslim actor, reignited a diplomatic spat last week when he lamented that no Pakistani player had been bought by the clubs competing in this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL), the wealthiest cricket tournament. Yesterday Shiv Sena, an extremist group that has long been a source of anti-Pakistan rhetoric, threatened to attack cinemas that screen Khan’s film, My Name Is Khan, when it is released on Friday. The Mumbai-based party warned Khan not to return to his home in India’s commercial capital unless he retracted his pro-Pakistan remarks, which he refused to do.“What did I say that was wrong? All I said was that I wanted people to come to my country,” Khan, who co-owns the Kolkata Knight Riders, an IPL side, said. The row has highlighted the damage to cricket in Pakistan after militant attacks, including one on the Sri Lanka team in Lahore last year. None of the 11 Pakistani players up for auction last month to compete in the IPL was bought by the eight Indian regional teams that compete in the Twenty20 competition, despite Pakistan being the world champions in the 20-over form of the game. IPL team bosses claimed privately to have been worried that the players would be excluded by the Indian authorities. They were not allowed to play in last year’s IPL, which was moved to South Africa after the Mumbai attacks carried out by the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba. The Indian Government denied that Pakistani players would have been denied visas this time.
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