Mumbai Bookstore is Told to Clear Away Books by Pakistani Writers

Ten days back the Oxford bookstore manager Girish Thakur received this suggestion from police in the light of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray’s ban on Pak artists. Girish said,

“Ten days ago, a policeman from the Marine Drive police station dropped in at our store and told us to be careful about a possible attack. He advised us to remove books and CDs related to Pakistan, as we may be targeted after the recent terror strikes in Mumbai. He reminded us of Raj Thackeray’s ban on Pakistani artists.”

Although Thakur does not support this ban personally as he believes people should not be barred from freedom of reading; however, he was bound to do so just to protect his store from MNS supporters. Thakur has decided to put back the books as soon as the situation is restored. Besides police, a store employee who happens to be a MNS supporter urged Thakur not to sell books by Pak authors. When contacted by Times of India correspondent that store employee said,

“After the recent attack on Mumbai, why should we have any Pakistani material in our bookstore?”

Later in a reaction Mumbai police chief Hasan Gafoor denied any such directives been made to the cops to remove Pak-authored books from any store in Mumbai. When Times of India reporters contacted the policeman from Marine Drive police station he said that he did not suggest Girish Thakur to remove Pak-authored books, instead he just paid a visit to “check that everything was all right.” However, after repeated persuasion he confessed that he just wanted to warn people in order to prevent any possible act of crime. Notably, Oxford Bookstore was previously attacked by Shiv Sena activists for stocking James Laine’s book on Shivaji. Eminent journalist Dilnaz Boga, who made a documentary on Kashmiri kids, is quite angry with this incident. He said,

“This is absolutely absurd! Is it anti-national to buy a book on Pakistan? I thought India was a democracy.”