Vivek Agnihotri, the author of ‘Urban Naxals’ and director of ‘The Kashmir Files, which showcased the reality of Islamic Jihad, has been on the target of Islamists since the release of this film in 2022.
On April 20, Vivek Agnihotri tweeted that the book signing event venue of his book Urban Naxals had been changed in West Bengal. He was apparently told that because the previous location was in a “Muslim area”, and it had to be relocated.
The book signing of Urban Naxals was scheduled for April 20 at 5 pm at the Quest Mall in Kolkata. The venue was changed to Starmark Book Shop in South City Mall.
Vivek tweeted, “Kolkata: Attention. This is to inform you that due to security reasons, the venue of the book signing of Urban Naxals has been shifted from Quest Mall to Starmark Book Shop, South City Mall. I’m informed that since Quest Mall is a Muslim Area it’s not safe. The tragedy of modern Bengal”.
Vivek Agnihotri has also shared an event poster with updated venue details.
This change in the location of the director’s book signing event occurred after the Quest Mall made headlines on social media.
According to reports, local Muslims stormed the mall demanding free food and gifts. This incident occurred on April 16.
On April 19, a video of the incident went viral on social media, showing several youths sitting on the mall’s flooring.
A Twitter user @Singh777 tweeted, “WestBengal Caliphate. In Quest Mall at 10:30 am, abt 250 local slum dwellers from a particular religion barged into the mall demanding that they sud be given permission to stay as the city of Kolkata is reeling at 43°C”.
Abhijit Majumdar tweeted, “Quest Mall, Kolkata. Built by Sanjiv Goenka’s RPSG group. Home to some of the top luxury brands. Taken over by the ‘faithful’ “.
However, the mall management filed a complaint with the Kolkata police cybercrime division on April 19 regarding the alleged purposeful misrepresentation of this occurrence.
According to Sanjeev Mehra, the mall’s vice president, power outages in the surrounding areas drove local youths to the mall on the night of April 16. He stated that the incident occurred around 11:30 pm when the visitors’ entrance was closed. He said that only customers from the multiplex and the restaurant were inside the mall at the time. He explained that the youths wanted to hang out in the air-conditioned mall due to power outages in their households.
Sanjeev Mehra said, “The leaders agreed and said it would not be repeated and that was that till a video of that night was circulated on Wednesday with a blatantly false and malicious claim that amounts to scaremongering”.
The term “Muslim Area” was recently popularised by none other than West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who advised Hindus not to take the Ram Navami processions through what she referred to as “Muslim areas”.
According to the Trinamool Congress leadership, the film director intentionally propagates false messages through cheap propaganda.
Last month while speaking at a seminar on ‘India’s Heritage: From Kashmir to Bengal’, Agnihotri said that many parts of West Bengal “have turned into Mini Kashmir”.
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