Double Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra has said that the decision to invite Pakistan’s Paris Olympics gold medallist javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem for his event NC Classic, to India was between two athletes, and the invitations had gone out to every athlete two days before the Pahalgam attack, revealing that his family has been subjected to hate and abuse for the interaction between him and Nadeem. Nadeem on Wednesday said that he has declined Neeraj’s invitation to compete in the NC Classic javelin event in Bengaluru on Saturday, May 24, as that will clash with his training schedule for the upcoming Asian Athletics Championships. Notably, on Tuesday, several Indian tourists were killed in Pahalgam in Kashmir after a terrorist attack, and a lot of hate was directed at Neeraj after it came to light that Nadeem had been invited to his event in India. “I usually am a man of few words, but that doesn’t mean I will not speak up against what I think is wrong. More so when it comes to questioning my love for our country and the respect and honour of my family,” Neeraj tweeted on Friday morning. pic.twitter.com/yMsX8ggnLA — Neeraj Chopra (@Neeraj_chopra1) April 25, 2025 “There has been so much talk about my decision to invite Arshad Nadeem to compete in the Neeraj Chopra Classic, and most of it has been hate and abuse. They haven’t even left my family out of it,” Neeraj said. “The invitation I extended to Arshad was from one athlete to another, nothing more, nothing less. The NC Classic aimed to bring the best athletes to India and for our country to be the home of world-class sporting events,” Neeraj added. Nadeem said two days back that he was grateful to the star Indian athlete for inviting him to the event. Nadeem said that he had been training hard for the Asian Championship, which will be held in Gumi, Korea, from May 27 to 31. Notably, the relations between India and Pakistan have soured further since the Pahalgam attack and it seems unlikely that any middle ground will be reached anytime soon between the two nations, with the number of casualties in the terror attack a big one.