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Muslim outfit objects to shooting of Osama film
After the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a Muslim outfit on Saturday protested the shooting of Kathryn Bigelow's film on Osama bin Laden in Chandigarh.
The movie is based on the killing of the Al Qaeda leader in Abbottabad (Pakistan). The outfit alleged that shooting of the film will disturb the peaceful atmosphere between the communities in a secular country.
"We express our great concern over the shooting. This movie will create differences between Muslims and other communities. It will provoke other communities, law and order will be badly affected and the peaceful atmosphere of the region will be disturbed," Jamait-e-Ulema Hind's north India general secretary Shakeel Ahmed Kasmi said in a memorandum submitted to Chandigarh's deputy commissioner.
Kasmi said, "We are Muslims living in a secular country where such type of activities (film shooting) should not have been allowed by the administration in the first place. We demand that the shooting of this film should be stopped forthwith".
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Muslim outfit objects to shooting of Osama film
He alleged that an attempt was being made through this film to portray the Muslim community in a bad light.
"If they have to shoot this film, they should go to Pakistan and not shoot it in India as here we apprehend that the peaceful atmosphere will be disturbed. The film will portray Muslims as terrorists, which is wrong," he alleged.
Earlier today, a group of traders in Sector 26's grain market, where the film's shooting is going on, also lodged their protest against the movie.
"It is badly affecting our business. The entire area has been sealed and customers cannot reach our shops," a trader said.
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After VHP, Muslim outfit objects to shooting of Osama film
On Friday, the film crew was forced to cancel the shoot and move the cameras away after protests, when a few scenes of the film were being recreated to show areas in Pakistan by the Oscar-winning director at Manimajra town.
Activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, led by Vijay Singh Bhardwaj, had disrupted the shooting and removed the signboards in Urdu put up on a few shops.
They had also raised slogans against Pakistan and removed its flags put in place to recreate the spot in Abbotabad where United States commandos killed Osama on May 2 last year.
Bigelow had later said no Pakistani flag will be put in place at the shooting areas.
The film's crew has been shooting this week in prominent markets in Chandigarh, the Punjab Engineering College and at Patiala, changing local shop boards to Urdu, showing auto-rickshaws with Lahore number plates, burqa-clad women and men in salwar-kameez, chappals and skullcaps.