Javed Akhtar recently called out on the silence of all Pakistani artistes working in India in regard to the Uri attacks and said that their silence is a "form of confession that Pakistan is responsible for it (the attack)."

Indeed, the silence of Pak artistes working in India has not been taken lightly by a huge section of Indians, including those from and outside the Bollywood film industry. Recently, Pak-born singer, Adnan Sami, who is now an Indian citizen, also questioned the silence of Pak artistes on the Uri attacks at the 2016 Safaigiri Awards.

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So, even in the face of such criticism and maligning, why are Pak artistes indeed silent?

Now, this question would not have sprung up if Pak artistes were characteristically silent during all terror attacks at any place. Fawad Khan expressed his condolences on Twitter during the November 2015 Paris attacks. Pakistani singer-actor Ali Zafar and VJ-turned-actor Mahira condemned the Paris attacks as well. Mahira, criticised the Orlando club shooting too.

As such, what does their silence mean? Are they afraid of something? If so, what is that? What do they stand to lose if they condemn a terror attack on Indian soil, allegedly orchestrated by Pakistan-backed terrorists?

Now, it is not possible to write that Pakistan officially conducted a terror attack on September 18 at Uri, Jammu and Kashmir because the tenets of journalism does not allow one to jump the gun and make such a statement without conclusive proof.

Having said that, a terror attack is a terror attack and the death of 19 Indian jawans is also the death of 19 young men who had families with people who depended on them...people who loved them. To stay stubbornly silent about such a tragedy indicates a number of things including spinelessness, fear, or a much more sinister suggestion - that they support a terror attack on Indian soil.

But, consider that these people are good, sane people for a minute. Ali Zafar, Atif Aslam, Fawad Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mahira Khan and so on, were already stars in Pakistan before they came to India. India has a larger film industry than Pakistan's and it offers more career opportunities than Pakistan can and there's no need for any Pakistani to get touchy about it. Their Coke Studio is better, no one is arguing, but Bollywood is Bollywood.

So, if these people are coming to Bollywood to seek a better life, to share their talent with Indians, what is wrong with it? Pak artistes over the years have collectively offered so much to Indian cinema and Indians have straightaway loved them back, regardless of what a has-been '90s playback singer-turned-sanghi troll would like to think.

However, when one sees how Adnan Sami got attacked by his Pak fans for supporting the Indian Army's surgical strikes on 'terror camps' across the LoC (Line of Control), any Pak actor or singer would definitely not go ahead and speak in favour of the Indian Army or condemn the terror attack.

But by staying silent, Pak artistes are ostensibly connecting a terror attack to a Pakistani attack...a Pakistani attack against Pakistan's enemy India. This is definitely not helping their image in any way. This is such a cowardly silence that even the most hard-nosed liberal, regardless of his/her opposition to the IMPPA's (Indian Motion Pictures Producers' Association) ban on Pak artistes, cannot have and will never have anything to defend a Pak artiste with.

A terror attack, at the end of the day, results in lives lost. If you are trying to look past the human tragedy and instead, checking the colour of the flag to decide whether or not you should feel sorry or say sorry, something is wrong with you and it is absolutely right on Javed Akhtar's part to criticise the silence of Pak artistes.