The Maulanas from the Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh convened a press conference at a school in Anand Nagar on 28th March 2022 to demand a ban on The Kashmir Files. As per reports, these Maulanas called the release of the film Kashmir Files unfortunate and termed it ‘laughable politics’. The organization that called this press conference is known as Muttahida Majalis-E-Amal. It is a combined group of religious and social organizations of Muslims, madarsas, schools, colleges, and other organizations in the Saharanpur district.
Muttahida Majalis-E-Amal’s spokesperson Sher Shah Alam said that through the film The Kashmir Files, an attempt is being made to disturb communal harmony under a conspiracy. It is unfortunate that attempts are being made to end the mutual brotherhood. Others addressing the press conference included Maulana Abdul Malik Mukesi who is district president of the Milli Council and Maulana Shahid Mazahiri who is a member of Jamiat Ulama Uttar Pradesh.
According to a report by Zee Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand, Sher Shah Azam said, “This press conference has been held about the film The Kashmir Files. The movie is creating hatred within the country. This film should be banned immediately. The government here says that the reality should come out, then there are so many realities here. What is the use of re-picking up old forgotten memories, making fabricated stories, and leaving them in the midst of the people? People will hate each other and when there is hatred there will be fights, mob lynchings.”
It was further said in the press conference, “In this film, all the historical facts are being twisted. Here they want to impose a particular point of view on people. This is not the way to maintain peace and harmony. We want people inside the country not to be misled and not to hate each other. Rather, adopt the thousands of years old ‘tehzeeb’ that symbolizes mutual brotherhood.”
Interestingly, when the journalists present at the press conference started asking questions about the film, Maulana got enraged and was about to fight with the journalist. It was only after interventions by others that things resumed to normal. The Kashmir Files is a film based on the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus by Islamic terrorists in Kashmir in 1990 and their subsequent exodus. The film was released on 11th March 2022.
