Shiv Sena disrupts play by Pakistani actors in Gurgaon

Shouting anti-Pakistan slogans, alleged Shiv Sena activists on Saturday disrupted a drama by some Pakistani actors in Gurgaon, days after they forced cancellation of ghazal singer Ghulam Ali’s musical performance in Mumbai as part of their campaign against personalities from the neighbouring country.

Around 5-6 young men claiming to be Shiv Sainiks climbed atop the stage at an open air theatre in Gurgaon, on Delhi’s outskirts, where a group of seven Pakistani actors were staging a play “Banjh” (infertile).

“They shouted slogans like ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Pakistan Murdabad’ and disrupted the show for about 5-10 minutes,” Public Relations Officer of Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon Satbir Rohilla said.

Though some reports said Shiv Sena activists pulled down Pakistani flags put on the stage, Rohilla said nothing of that sort happened.

The show by the artistes from ‘Mass Foundation’, Lahore, he said, later resumed.

Rohilla said the concerned authorities decided against reporting the matter to the police as they did not want to “turn the troublemakers into heroes”.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Deepak Sharan said though no complaint has been registered by the organisers of the show, the matter is being investigated.

He said the organisers had neither obtained permission for the play nor intimated the local police about it.

“Still, on getting information, the police inspector of the concerned police station rushed to the scene. We have got to know of the registration number of the vehicle used by the trouble makers. The matter is under investigation,” he said.

The Sena activists had recently blackened the face of former Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sudheendra Kulkarni, chairman of the Observer Research Foundation, in Mumbai when he refused to cancel the book launch of former Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri in Mumbai.

They had also stormed the Board of Control for Cricket in India office in Mumbai and forced cancellation of talks between Indian cricket board chief Shashank Manohar and his Pakistani counterpart Shahryar Khan on resumption of cricketing ties between the two countries.