Shakib Hasan apologises for attending Kali Puja

Death threat issued for hurting religious sentiments, Taslima Nasreen flays Shakib for bowing to Islamists

Bengaluru: The famous all-rounder cricketer from Bangladesh Shakib al Hasan has apologised for having inaugurated a Kali Puja mandap at Kakurgachi in Kolkata.

This has caused a furore among his Muslim followers who have criticised him on social media. He lost around a million Muslim followers on social media within a few days of inaugurating the Kali Puja mandap.

One Mohsin Talukdar even threatened to kill Shakib through a live video on Facebook on Monday.

Shakib had to explain himself in a video and claimed that he had not gone to Kolkata for inaugurating the puja mandap, but for attending a felicitation programme. He claimed that the media reports in which he was described as inaugurating the puja mandap were not true.

He also denied that he broke the phone of a fan. He said that the fan intruded his private space and he pushed which resulted in his phone falling and broke. He apologised for his phone breaking.

Regarding the puja mandap inauguration, he clarified: “I am a proud Muslim and I try to comply with rules. If I made a mistake, I apologize. Regarding the puja, I did not go there and did not inaugurate the puja mandap. The reports were wrong. If you see the invitation card, then you would see that the inauguration was done before my reaching there. I was in felicitation programme no religious activities were done. Since the traffic closed, I had to cross the route near Kali Puja mandap. On requests of everyone I stood there for a photo.”

On the other hand, the famous and exiled Bangladesh writer Taslima Nasreen criticised Shakib Al Hasan for having apologised to Muslim fanatics. In a tweet, she said: “Sakib Al Hasan should not have apologised for attending Kali puja in Kolkata. His apology will strengthen the islamists to kill Muslims whoever visit puja mandap or sympathise with Hindus. He should have said what he did was right, love should be celebrated & hate should be rejected.”

As expected, there were no comments from the so-called secular groups in India, who chose to remain silent and look the other way. There were no comments from the famous secularists of India on this development in which a famous international cricketer was forced to apologise just for attending a kali puja mandap inaugurating ceremony.