Anti-Salman Khan protests on Saturday rocked many parts of the country, a day after an expose about his alleged links with the underworld, forcing several cinema halls to stop screening his film Maine Pyar Kyon Kiya on the first day of its release.
Activists of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and Trinamool Congress raised slogans, held demonstrations, tore posters outside several cinema halls in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal, and urged people not to watch the movie starring 'a man who has admitted
to having links with the underworld'.
Bajrang Dal activists shouted slogans, tore posters and burnt effigies of the actor in front of cinema halls in Indore, Jabalpur and Gwalior.
Activists of the saffron outfit created a ruckus outside cinema halls in Ahmedabad and Bharuch, while Bharatiya Janata
Yuva Morcha workers held demonstrations denouncing the actor's alleged connections with the underworld.
As a precautionary measure, security was beefed up near cinema halls in all cities, which witnessed the protests.
An audio tape purportedly containing a conversation between Khan and Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai in which he allegdly flaunted his underworld links and tried to bully the actress to perform at a programme organised by gangster Abu Salem.
The issue also figured in the Maharashtra Assembly and Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil said the government will make
a statement in the House on July 20.
Cinema hall owners and distributors voluntarily withdrew screening of the film fearing violence, a senior police official said.
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