Shiv Sena activists are seeking an apology from Shah Rukh over his remarks against the exclusion of Pakistani players from the Indian Premier League and have threatened to ban his upcoming release, "My Name Is Khan" in Mumbai theatres if he doesn`t retract his statement.
83-year-old freedom fighter Trilochan Singh said that Shiv Sena has no right to tell Shah Rukh Khan to go to Pakistan, pointing out that the Bollywood superstar`s father was a prominent Quit India movement activist who chose to migrate to Delhi from Peshawar during partition.
anything during the freedom struggle is asking Shah Rukh to leave," said Singh, who had joined the Quit India movement along with the actor`s father, Taj Mohammad Mir, in Peshawar, which now lies in Pakistan. Whole family was involved in the freedom fight, to go to Pakistan?" agonised Singh while talking exclusively to reporters.
"Taj was born and brought up in Peshawar. They had a business in Qissa Khwani Bazaar. It is still the main market in Peshawar. We carried on the Quit India movement. Taj Mohammad and Ghulam Mohammad were prominent participants in the movement."
Singh said that after independence, Shah Rukh`s father was one of the few Muslims who decided to leave Pakistan and settle in India.
"After independence, I came to Delhi. Incidentally Taj also came to Delhi. He was one of the few Muslims who migrated to India from Pakistan.
"The Shiv Sena and Bal Thackeray had nothing to do with the freedom struggle and they are asking Shah Rukh to go back to Pakistan. It`s very shameful for Shiv Sena leaders. They are saying it because he is a Muslim. I think we all Indians owe it to our freedom that the Shiv Sena should not get away with such statements," Trilochan Singh told to reporters.