Four spectators were detained by Kolkata police on Tuesday from the Eden Gardens cricket stadium for allegedly waving the Palestinian flag from the gallery during the Pakistan-Bangladesh ICC World Cup 2023 match.
However, the detainees were released later by the police without filing any cases.
The Palestinian flag was waved when Bangladesh were batting during the first innings of the encounter against Pakistan.
According to the police, one of the detainees was a resident of the Ekbalpore area in the city while the other hailed from Bally in the Howrah district. Two others were political workers who took part in a protest march before entering the stadium.
“After a preliminary inquiry, all four left the Maidan police station. They are residents of Bally in Howrah and Ekbalpore and Karaya areas in Kolkata,” a senior officer was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
Earlier, Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan dedicated his side’s win over Sri Lanka during the ICC World Cup 2023 to his “brothers and sisters in Gaza”.
It must be noted that Israel has deployed ground troops into the Gaza Strip in recent days to "crush" the Palestinian group Hamas after its fighters killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, including women, children and the elderly, in an October 7 attack.
Since then, Israel has hit back with an unrelenting air and artillery bombardment, which the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza says has killed more than 8,500 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children.
Internet and phone networks were down across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the Palestinian telecommunications agency said, in the second such blackout in the besieged territory in less than a week.
"To our good people in the beloved country, we are sorry to announce that communications and internet services have been completely cut off in Gaza," the Palestine Telecommunications Company (Paltel) said on X.