After the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Muslim group objects to shooting of Osama film

Chandigarh, Mar 3 (PTI) After Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a Muslim outfit today protested against the shooting of Kathryn Bigelow's film on Osama bin Laden in this north Indian city on the killing of the al Qaeda leader in Abbottabad (Pakistan) alleging that it will disturb the peaceful atmosphere between the communities in a secular country. "We express our great concern over the shooting of Zero Dark Thirty or ZD 30. This picture will create more differences between Muslim and other communities. It will provoke other communities and law and order will be badly affected and the peaceful atmosphere of the region disturbed," Jamait-e-Ulema Hind's North India General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed Kasmi said in a memorandum submitted to Chandigarh's Deputy Commissioner. Later talking to PTI, 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". He alleged an attempt was being made through this film to portray the Muslim community in bad light. "If they have to shoot this film, they should go to Pakistan and not shoot it in India as here we apprehend the peaceful atmosphere will be disturbed. The film will portray Muslims as terrorists, which is wrong," he alleged. Earlier in the day, a group of traders in Sector 26's grain market of the city, where the film's shooting was 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 based in the grain market said. Yesterday, the film crew was forced to cancel the shoot and move the cameras away after the protests when a few scenes of the film were being recreated to show areas in Pakistan by the Oscar-winning director at Manimajra town on the outskirts of Chandigarh. Activists of VHP had disrupted the shooting and removed the sign boards 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 US commandos killed the Osama on May 2, 2011. 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 and the Punjab Engineering College here and at Patiala in India's Punjab state, changing local shop boards to Urdu, showing auto-rickshaws with Lahore number plates, burqa-clad women and men in salwar-kameez, chappals and skullcaps. PTI