Shiv Sena intensifies anti-Shah Rukh stir

Over 350 Shiv Sena activists, some of them office-bearers, were today arrested for demonstrating and damaging cinema screens to protest against Shah Rukh Khan-starrer ‘My Name is Khan’, which is to be released this Friday.

The saffron outfit renewed its threat not to allow the release of the film unless the Bollywood star retracted his statement favouring inclusion of Pakistani players in the coming edition of the Indian Premier League.

“We will not allow the movie to be released. Shah Rukh should first apologise to Balasaheb (Thackeray), the Shiv Sena patriarch, and then only we can talk with him,” Sena leader Manohar Joshi said.

Screens of Metro theatre in south Mumbai and Huma Cinema at Kanjurmarg were cut with sharp instruments by the Sena workers who entered the halls as regular viewers by buying tickets, police said. At suburban Mulund, the glasses of Mehul cinema were broken in stone pelting by the protesters, who shouted slogans against Khan and his to-be-released film.

“We have arrested 380 Shiv Sena activists. It included preventive arrests. Many of them were rounded up for protesting outside the cinema theatres,” Additional Police Commissioner Ritesh Kumar said.

In wake of the Sena intensifying protests against Khan, leaves of the city police personnel have been cancelled to ensure their full presence. To further strengthen security, personnel from State Reserve Police Force and Home Guards will be deployed at the 63 theatres that will screen the film here.