Anger, intolerance
BLACK DAY J&K MLA Engineer inked, Sena storms key India-Pak cricket meet
MUMBAI: India’s cricket board called off talks with its Pakistani counterpart on Monday after Shiv Sena workers stormed its Mumbai office ahead of a scheduled meeting between the cricket chiefs of the two nations to protest a proposed bilateral tournament.
Police arrested 10 Sena members after party workers barged into the Mumbai headquarters of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), where Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Shaharyar Khan was slated to meet newly-elected BCCI president Shashank Manohar.
Hindu hardliners also upped the ante in the Capital, throwing black ink and oil at Jammu and Kashmir legislator Sheikh Abdul Rashid, better known as Engineer Rashid, days after he was attacked in the J&K assembly for holding a beef party.
In Mumbai, around 200 Sena workers carrying saffron placards and black flags broke through the gate and “gheraoed” Manohar, shouting slogans against him, Khan and Pakistan, days after forcing the cancellation of Ghulam Ali’s concert and smearing ink on Observer Research Foundation chief Sudheendra Kulkarni for organising an ex-Pakistani minister’s book launch.
“I condemn the attack. You can’t barge into the BCCI premises and force not to hold talks with the PCB chairman. That is not fair,” said BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur, also a BJP parliamentarian.
The attacks in Mumbai and Delhi triggered widespread condemnation from civil society activists, who said the incidents pointed to growing intolerance in the country because of the rise of right-wing forces.
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