Harvard in hot water as event with top Pakistani officials sparks student outrage after Pahalgam massacre

A recent conference on Pakistan, held at Harvard University’s South Asia Institute — funded by Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal — has sparked a backlash among Indian students, prompting the university to quietly distance itself from the event, reported TOI.

The controversy followed the participation of top Pakistani officials, including Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and Ambassador to the US Rizwan Saeed Sheikh.

According to the report, Indian students at Harvard expressed outrage over the university offering space to representatives of a country they claim supports terrorism, especially in light of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in J&K that killed 26 people. The tragedy has led to an escalation of tensions between the disputed India and Pakistan after terror links to the latter were discovered in the attack.


Two Indian students, Surabhi Tomar and Abhishek Chaudhuri, penned letters to Harvard’s leadership and to US Senator Marco Rubio, arguing that providing a platform to Pakistani officials risks legitimsing state-sponsored violence.

They urged Harvard to publicly denounce the Pahalgam attack and offer support to grieving Indian and Hindu students through a statement. The students further asked the renowned ivy league university to "ensure its campus does not become a platform for whitewashing state-enabled religious terrorism.”

“Welcoming representatives of a government that enables or justifies terrorism risks Harvard being complicit. The United States must not host representatives of a state that protects and promotes organisations targeting civilians based on faith,” a separate letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio read.


Meanwhile, a representative from the South Asia Institute told TOI that the event was initiated by Pakistani students and the institute’s involvement was limited to offering minimal logistical assistance.

Institute quietly scrubs event details

While the Mittal South Asia Institute maintained it only gave limited logistical support, its executive director Hitesh Hathi was a participant in a session on with Pakistani-American historian Ayesha Jalal, said the TOI report.

That session, on The Enlightened Muslim: Examining the intersection of religion, modernity, and state formation in Pakistan,” and other references to the event, were later removed from the institute’s website without explanation.

The university has not issued a formal statement addressing the criticism, but the removal of online materials suggests a desire to minimise association with the controversy.

Pakistan seeks academic revival

The episode also brought attention to Pakistan’s declining visibility in US academia.

Attendees noted that the event was likely intended, at least in part, to counter this trend.

According to the TOI report, Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, who reported on the conference, stressed India’s academic dominance, prompting Pakistan’s ambassador to vow efforts to reinstate now-defunct academic programs such as the Quaid-e-Azam Chair at Columbia University.

Data from Open Doors suggest that Pakistan lags far behind in international student numbers, with just under 11,000 students currently studying in the US — a stark contrast to India’s 331,000. Even smaller neighbours like Bangladesh and Nepal send more students to American universities.

Analysts further suggest that Pakistan’s poor international image, shaped by longstanding associations with extremist groups, is hampering its academic outreach abroad.