Gadar controversy — Shias threaten self-immolation

Addressing a press conference, Shikoh Azad, spokesman of the royal family of Avadh and the All India Shia Conference, said Muslims would take to the streets in protest against the permission. “Tomorrow’s Friday namaz at Asifi mosque is thus going to be crucial,” he added.

Shabbir Ahmad, president of Al-Gadeer, a Muslim social organistaion, announced at the press conference that he would immolate himself in protest against the “dubious role” of the state government on the issue. Azad and other Muslim leaders present on the occasion went a step further, saying it would trigger a chain-reaction by way of self-immolations if the state government did not awake to the situation.

The shooting turned controversial when the Muslim community said that a sacred place like Imambara could not be used as a setting for any commercial film.

Azad, while demanding a high-level inquiry into the matter, alleged that the interior decor of the religious place was recently changed to suit purposes of shooting. “The Shias are very perturbed over it and it is upto the state government to pacify the agitated who might resort to dharna and demonstration,” he added.

He also disputed the clarification from the administration that the district magistrate had given the permission in his capacity as the ex-officio chairman of Hussainabad and Shahnazaf Allied Trusts, controlling the affairs of the Imambara. “The district magistrate should have taken into account the feelings of about three lakh Shias of the state capital before permitting it,” he observed.

The Muslim leaders claimed that the entire episode had been planned by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to disturb the tranquility of Lucknow. “The only sane step on the part of the administration now would be to stop the proposed shooting (from March 13 to 17) and ask the film unit to shoot elsewhere,” they suggested.

Refusing to accept that the protest against the shooting had political undertones, they alleged, “The protests against the shooting of Water in Varanasi were government-sponsored, but here in Lucknow, they are related to religious sentiments.”