Recently, a Pakistan conference was held at the South Asia Institute of Harvard University in America. Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and Pakistan’s Ambassador to America Rizwan Saeed Sheikh participated in it. This event was held on 27 April, which was organized by Pakistani students. Four days before this event, on 22 April, there was a terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. Indian students registered their protest and objection to this conference in front of Harvard. After this, Harvard distanced itself from this issue and removed the information about the event from its website. Indian students wrote a letter to the US Foreign Minister Two Indian students Surabhi Tomar and Rashmini Koparkar wrote a letter to the Harvard Administration and US Foreign Minister Marco Rubio. In the letter, they wrote that it was wrong for the university to invite officials of the Pakistani government. Students wrote – It is wrong to invite officials of a government that promotes or justifies terrorism. People will also raise questions on Harvard that the university is also involved in the terrorist attack. Students also demanded that Harvard publicly condemn the Pahalgam attack. This event was organized by Pakistani students of Harvard. Student Surabhi Tomar said – We should not remain silent after religion-based murder, this is our belief. We consulted our colleagues. We got support from students from 65 countries. We emphasized that this was not a sudden violence. It was religious persecution. We requested Harvard to stand against Hinduphobia and asked US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to deny visas to officials who support ideologies related to terrorism. Rashmini Koparkar expressed anger and said that the guests who came to the event did not condemn the Pahalgam attack. There was a terrorist attack on Pahalgam, we thought that all the guests would condemn the attack before the event started. But nothing like this happened. Explanation of Harvard’s South Asia Institute – Students had organized it independently. Apart from this, it was also revealed that the university’s executive director Hitesh Hathi had recently participated in a panel discussion with Pakistani-American historian Ayesha Jalal. Amid the growing controversy over the Pakistan Conference, Harvard University’s South Asia Institute issued a statement in its defense. The institute expressed its condolences to the victims of the Pahalgam attack, and also said that the students had organized the conference independently. The South Asia Institute also said – We support all academic research projects and also work with other universities on many programs in the year. One such event was the Pakistan Conference, which was organized by Harvard’s students on 27 April 2025. We share our grief and pain with our friends, colleagues in India, who have been affected by the attack in Pahalgam on April 22, 2025. ———————— Also read this news related to Pahalgam…. ‘PM Gayab’ poster controversy – Congress gave guidelines to the leaders: Said – Only authorized leaders should give statements on the Pahalgam attack; action will be taken on indiscipline Regarding the Pahalgam terror attack, Congress shared a post on April 28 calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi missing, which was later deleted. On this, there was a round of allegations and counter-allegations between the Congress and BJP leaders throughout the day. Read the full news…
