Varanasi: Cricket fans in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, performed aarti and prayed for Team India's victory against Pakistan in the Asia Cup match on Sunday. The fans gathered at Rajendra Prasad Ghat on the banks of the Ganga, where the atmosphere was filled with patriotic fervour and chants of “Har Har Mahadev” and “Bharat Mata Ki Jai.” Devotees performed the Ganga Aarti, offered prayers while standing in the river, and held pictures of Indian cricketers and the national flag. Some carried images of Lord Hanuman, praying for strength and triumph.

One Indian cricket fan participating in the pooja expressed confidence in the team, saying, "We hope that just the way our Indian Army defeated the Pakistani Army, similarly, we hope that our cricket team will also defeat their team one-sidedly today. The Pakistani team lags behind us in terms of cricketing skills and understanding of cricket. Our cricket team will fight like soldiers, and that is why we are calling it Operation Sindoor 2."

Meanwhile, the scheduled cricket match has faced criticism from families of the Pahalgam terror attack victims and political opposition. AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for allowing the match amid the recent attack. Speaking to the media, Owaisi questioned, "My question to the Chief Minister of Assam, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, and all of them is that you don't have the power to refuse to play a cricket match against Pakistan, which asked for the religion of our 26 citizens in Pahalgam and shot them." He further questioned whether the money earned through the match is more "valuable" than the lives lost in the Pahalgam terror attack.

The anger surrounding the India-Pakistan cricket match comes from the terror attack that killed 26 tourists on April 22, 2025, in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists. This has led to mixed emotions across the country, with calls to boycott the fixture against Pakistan.

With inputs from ANI