“Such continued incidents of desecration and disrespect of places of religious worship of the minority communities in Pakistan highlight the lack of respect for the faith of these communities,” said the MEA spokesperson.
Kartarpur Sahib. Photo: Shome Basu
New Delhi: India on Tuesday summoned the Pakistan high commission’s Charge d’Affaires to protest the photoshoot of a blogger at Gurudwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, asserting that it was part of “continued incidents of desecration and disrespect of places of religious worship of the minority communities in Pakistan”.
On Monday, a Chandigarh-based journalist Ravinder Singh Robin tweeted photos posted on the Instagram account of a clothing brand of a model twirling in front of the gurudwara without any head covering.
Modelling bareheaded for ladies' attire, in the premises of Gurdwara Sri Darbar Sahib at #KartarpurSahib in Pakistan, by a Lahorite woman, has several hurt the religious sentiments of Sikhs. Further the pictures were uploaded on social media.@ImranKhanPTI @MORAisbOfficial pic.twitter.com/i5RX01kWGo
— Ravinder Singh Robin ਰਵਿੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ رویندرسنگھ روبن (@rsrobin1) November 29, 2021
Taking cognisance of the incident, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi stated that the Pakistani Charge D’Affairs was summoned to “convey our deep concern at the incident of desecration of the sanctity of Gurudwara Shri Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur by a Pakistani model and a clothing brand”.
He also asserted that India conveyed that this “reprehensible incident” had hurt the sentiment of Sikhs in India and across the world. “Such continued incidents of desecration and disrespect of places of religious worship of the minority communities in Pakistan highlight the lack of respect for the faith of these communities,” Bagchi said.
India also called on Pakistani authorities “to sincerely investigate this matter and take action against those involved”.
Following the tweet by the Indian journalist, Azhar Mashwani, a senior aide of the chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab province, replied that the matter had been forwarded to the “concerned authorities for legal action”.
Pakistan’s Punjab police also announced that they were investigating the incident will take “strict legal action”.
“Management of concerned brand & model are being investigated. Worship places of all religions are equally respectable,” it tweeted on Monday.
Punjab Police are investigating all aspects related to this incident and strict legal action will be taken against responsible. Management of concerned brand & model are being investigated. Worship places of all religions are equally respectable.@MashwaniAzhar https://t.co/HLqwRKmOKY
— Punjab Police Official (@OfficialDPRPP) November 29, 2021
According to Dawn, Pakistan Punjab’s chief minister Usman Buzdar had also ordered an inquiry into it. “Not only will action be taken against those responsible after a comprehensive investigation into the incident but it will also be seen being taken,” said an official statement.
Also Read: Pak Police to Probe Model, Clothing Brand for Bareheaded Photoshoot at Kartarpur Sahib
Another top aid of the chief minister, Shahbaz Gill, described the incident as “stupid and unthoughtful” and called on the designer to apologise to the Sikh community.
Pakistan’s federal information minister Fawad Chaudhry also demanded that “the designer and the model must apologise to Sikh community”.
“Kartarpur Sahib is a religious symbol and not a film set,” he tweeted.
The model was identified as Sauleha Imtiaz, a blogger who posts fashion photos on her Instagram account. She apologised on her account and said that it was not part of a formal fashion shoot.
“I just went to [K]artarpur to learn about the history and know about the [S]ikh community. It wasn’t done to hurt anyone sentiments or anything for that matter. However, if I have hurt anyone or they think that I don’t respect their culture, I am sorry,” she wrote on Instagram.
The photos were posted on the Instagram account of Mannat Clothing, which was removed after the outrage.
They also posted an apology on their Instagram account, stating that a “third party had supplied the photos”.
“However, we accept our mistake that we should not have posted this content and we apologise to every single person who was offended by this. All the holy places are very sacred to us. The pictures and posts have been removed from all our media channels,” said the clothing brand.
source ; the wire
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(With input from news agency language)
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