In the video, Afridi can be seen sitting, flanked by delegates and he swiftly inserts the tobacco in his mouth. The event was attended by high ranking delegates and Prime Minister Imran Khan. This was followed by another video that had gone viral which showed him consuming gutka in an event that was held at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi soon after the celebrations. He later made ‘clarifications’ that he was chewing cloves and ‘saunf’ or fennel seeds.
Afridi has recently been courting quite a lot of controversial comments on Kashmir and India’s governance. In a recent statement, Afridi had said that the citizens of India are being oppressed. He had also created an uproar in social media when he tweeted about Kashmir with the hashtag #SaveKashmir. In the tweet, Afridi wrote
‘It does not take a religious belief to feel the agony of Kashmiris..just a right heart at the right place. #SaveKashmir’.
Cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir slammed Afridi for his comments and countered his tweet. He wrote "Pak has 7 lakh force backed by 20 Cr ppl says 16 yr old man @SAfridiOfficial. Yet begging for Kashmir for 70 yrs. Jokers like Afridi, Imran & Bajwa can spew venom against India & PM @narendramodi ji to fool Pak ppl but won't get Kashmir till judgment day! Remember Bangladesh?"