Kolkata: A fatwa has been issued against Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik by the Shahi Imam of the Tipu Sultan mosque in Kolkata.

Tipu Sultan mosque Shahi Imam Maulana Barkati said that a nikahnama was issued only after marriage and that Shoaib was committing a sin and should be socially boycotted for denying his marriage with Ayesha Siddiqui.

"Shoaib and Ayesha are married. Nikahnama is issued only after marriage. It is quite evident that Shoaib got married to Ayesha. It is a very sacred relationship. By abandoning it, he is making a joke of Islam. It is a sin and a great crime. He must be socially boycotted in India and Pakistan. He must be given a strict punishment," said the fatwa issued by Maulana Barkati.

But the Pakistan cricketer has got some support from his former skipper Rashid Latif who claimed that the woman who Shoaib used to chat online with looked nothing like Ayesha.

"Shoaib Malik used to borrow my laptop for chatting with a girl. He showed me a few pictures of her. I can assure you that the girl I saw in pictures is not the one on TV these days," said Latif.

Shoaib is scheduled to get married to Indian tennis player Sania Mirza on April 15 in Hyderabad.

However, Ayesha and her family has been claiming that Shoaib is married to her and cannot marry Sania.