A large crowd gathered outside the India Today/Aaj Tak office on the busy Richmond Road in Bengaluru on Friday, halting traffic and chanting slogans “Band karo band karo aaj tak band karo”.
The protesters carried out a silent march from Masjid-e-haskari to Aaj Tak’s office. It was organised by Anjuman-e-Imamia.
On a poster carried by one of the protesters, it was written that “the group condemned Rohit Sardana’s comments against Bibi Fatima (SA), the daughter of the Holy Prophet, the wife of the Holy Prophet and Immaculate Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ.”
A Shia group had earlier put out a statement that Rohit Sardana had to apologise on camera within 48 hours. Sardana had tweeted an apology earlier.
मैंने किसी धर्म का नाम नहीं लिया. ना ही किसी की भावनाएँ आहत करने के लिए कोई बात कही. फिर भी किसी को चोट पहुँची तो खेद है. इसे बेवजह तूल देना उचित नहीं. https://t.co/2dkuI7M1hf
— Rohit Sardana (@sardanarohit) November 22, 2017
On Thursday, protesters demanded the arrest of Aaj Tak TV journalist Rohit Sardana, alleging that his posts on Twitter were 'blasphemous.'
Sardana’s tweet posted on Nov 16 triggered immediate outrage. The tweet was in the context of the film Sexy Durga. Sardana referred to women in Islam and Christianity, including Prophet Muhammad's wife Ayesha, daughter Fatima and Mary, Jesus Christ's mother. He asked why the title of 'Sexy' was only put after a Hindu goddess and asked if the same could be done for the other names as well.
A large group of people also protested in front of the Old City Commissioner’s office in Hyderabad on Thursday A memorandum was also submitted to the Deputy Commissioner of Police V Satyanarayana, who said that a case had already been registered.
The journalist has alleged that he has been receiving several calls from unknown numbers who are threatening and intimidating him.
He took to Twitter to post screenshots of the anonymous numbers and asked the Uttar Pradesh police to take action.