NEW DELHI, March 17, 2013
Sainiks disrupt Pakistani singer
Staff Reporter
The Hindu
Shiv Sena activists protesting against the Pakistani folk and sufi
singer Sanam Marvi (standing behind) during her performance at the
Sindhi Sufi Music Festival in New Delhi on Saturday. Photo: Shiv Kumar
Pushpakar
Over half-a-dozen Shiv Sainiks disrupted the Sindhi
Sufi Music Festival at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts
here on Saturday, protesting against the participation of Pakistani
singers in the wake of the recent terror attack at a CRPF camp in
Srinagar.
Pakistani folk and Sufi singer Sanam Marvi
was performing on the open lawns at Mati Ghar around 8.30 p.m. when the
Sena workers barged into the premises despite police presence.
“The
protesters got on to the stage and even before the audience and the
artists could realise what was happening, they took hold of the mike and
started raising slogans against Pakistan. The protesters announced that
no Pakistani singer would be allowed to perform at the festival. The
commotion lasted a few minutes before the organisers managed to push the
protesters away from the stage and handed them over to the police,”
said an eyewitness.
Protesters detained
Over
two dozen Sainiks, including women, had earlier staged a protest
outside the venue around 5.30 p.m., raising slogans. The protesters
were, however, detained by the police and taken away in a Delhi
Transport Corporation bus.
“As the festival is being
held on the open lawns and entry is without invitation, it is easy for
anyone to walk inside posing as audience and disrupt the show. Still, we
had deployed police personnel in adequate numbers. Those who took part
in the earlier protest were detained and later let off,” said Deputy
Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) S.B.S. Tyagi.
In a
press statement, the Sena secretary said Pakistan was stabbing the
country in the back, but the Indian government was reaching out to them
with proposals of love and peace. He said no Pakistani singer or player
would be allowed on Indian soil until Pakistan stopped abetting
terrorism.
The two-day festival hosts Sufi singers from India and Pakistan displaying their shared heritage of Sindhi Sufism.
