“26/11 attackers roaming freely in Pakistan,” says Javed Akhtar at Faiz festival in Lahore (VIDEO)

New Delhi: Writer-Lyricist Javed Akhtar, in a recent visit to Lahore, sought to show the mirror to thousands of Pakistanis by saying that the nation & its countrymen can’t absolve itself from the fact that the 26/11 Mumbai attackers came from here and till today, they are roaming freely in its territory.

He also said that it was justified if the Indians are complaining about it. The renowned lyricist was in Lahore for attending a musical festival organized in memory of famous Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz in Lahore. The video of Akhtar’s incriminating statement on Pakistan’s role in ‘shielding’ perpetrators went viral on social media.

Akhtar’s statement came in response to a person’s comment, who wanted the lyricist to take home the message that Pakistan was a peace-loving & friendly nation.

‘हम तो बंबई के लोग हैं, हमने देखा कैसे हमला हुआ था…वो लोग नॉर्वे से तो नहीं आए थे, न मिस्र से आए थे, वो लोग अभी भी आपके मुल्क में घूम रहे हैं’. – लाहौर के फ़ैज़ फेस्टिवल में जावेद अख्तर#FaizFestival2023#javedakhtar pic.twitter.com/s9s1cMYZqf

— Versha Singh (@Vershasingh26) February 21, 2023

“You have visited Pakistan a couple of times. When you go back, what do you tell your people? Do you tell them that they aren’t just bombing but also greeting us with garlands?”, a person reportedly asked him.

Replying to him, Akhtar said, “Hum toh Bambaiye log hain. Hamne dekha wahan kaise hamla hua tha. Wo log Norway se toh nahi aaye the naa Egypt se aaye the, wo log abhi bhi aapke mulk me ghum rahe hain. Toh ye shikayat agar Hindustani ke dil mein ho toh aapko bura nahi manna chahiye.”

Further calling out Pakistan’s reluctance in showering love on Indian artistes, he reminded the gathering that though Pakistani artists like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Mehndi Hasan went on to become ‘cult figure’ in India but Islamabad never reciprocated the gesture by hosting any musical show for Lata Mangeshkar.

On 26th November 2008, a group of ten terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) had sneaked into many an iconic towers in Mumbai and killed 164 people with indiscriminate firing.