Srinagar: Farooq Abdullah, the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, stated on Monday that films like Vivek Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files incite animosity in the country and should be banned.
This follows the assassination of Kashmiri Pandit Rahul Bhat in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam area.
“We met J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Sunday to raise the issue of the deteriorating law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir. At the meeting, I told him that the film ‘The Kashmir Files’ has created hatred in the country. Is it possible that a Muslim killed a Hindu, put his blood in rice and asked his wife to eat it? Such things [films] should be stopped. Media that spreads hatred should be stopped,” J&K National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah said.
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha announced on Sunday that security in the Valley’s residential zones for government Kashmiri Pandit personnel would be toughened up, as well as an investigation into the tear gas shelling event against them during the demonstration.
He added, “The atmosphere of hatred against Muslims in the country is giving rise to anger among Muslim youth in Kashmir.”
“If we have to come closer to each other, this hatred has to end. ‘The Kashmir Files’ shows a Muslim killing a Hindu and rinsing the rice in his blood and telling his wife to eat it? This is a baseless film that has not only created hatred in the country but also among the youth of the valley that how they are being looked at,” Abdullah added. Assuring the cooperation of the leaders of the Union Territory, the National Conference chief said that they would “stand with everything that helps maintain peace and law and order”. “We don’t want to disrupt the law and order.
On Thursday, the assassination of Rahul Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit and government employee, sparked street protests in which teargas was deployed to disperse the crowd. The J-K government formed a SIT to investigate the murder after the protest.
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