India’s star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra on Friday said he has been bombarded with ‘hate and abuse’ for inviting Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem to next month’s Neeraj Chopra Classic in Bengaluru, clarifying that the Olympic champion’s presence was  now ‘completely out of question’ in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack.

The Tokyo Olympics gold-medallist said he was deeply hurt to see his integrity being questioned in abusive social media posts. “After all that has taken place over the last 48 hours, Arshad’s presence at the NC Classic was completely out of the question. My country and its interests will always come first,” Chopra said in a lengthy post on X.