Pakistan-born writer Tarek Fatah, now a Canadian citizen, has alleged that he was heckled by a mob at an Urdu poetry festival in New Delhi on19 February.
Fatah, 67, alleged that the police did nothing to stop the crowd of about a 100 people, who attacked him, until a Deputy Commissioner of Police reached the scene and apologised.
Fatah, who is also the founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said the attack occurred when he attended the Jashn-e-Rekhta at Janpath on Sunday.
He said the crowds dubbed him a "kutta" (dog) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and kept screaming "Death to Tarek Fatah". He also alleged that a few members of the crowd kicked him.
The police "manhandled me, claiming I was the reason why the crowd was upset and that I should leave the premises," he alleged, adding that he resisted the police’s efforts to remove him from the spot and stayed put until a senior officer tendered him an apology.
Fatah accused the organisers of abandoning him and said he suspected it were they who sent the mob after him.
A spokesman for the organisers told IANS: "Ours is an apolitical event. We have a small team and the volunteers were busy organising the lined-up events. When we saw that it was turning ugly we decided to call the police to provide him (Fatah) security."
Twitterati remained divided over the matter. While some condemned the “horrific attack” and questioned the silence of “learned liberals” over the incident, others called Fatah an “attention seeker”.
Bareilly Cleric Announces Bounty
A bounty of Rs 10,786 was also announced on Tarek Fatah on Monday by a Bareilly-based religious organisation All India Faizan-e-Madina. Fatah's show on a private news channel is allegedly “anti-Muslim” according to the organisation and that the Pakistani author had hurt Muslim sentiments by hosting a show called ‘Fatah ka Fatwa’.
(With inputs from IANS and The Times of India)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)