The star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is returning to international cricket after serving a year-long ban. And right when he is to get back to the cricket field, he is getting life threats via Facebook from fundamentalists. The incident happened as a result of Shakib’s visit to Kolkata to inaugurate Durga Puja. This is reported to have hurt the sentiments of some conservative Muslims, who threatened to cut him into pieces.
The world is becoming more and more polarized and people are now finding it difficult to intermix with different cultures and traditions. With the advent of social media, whenever someone tries to indulge in multiple traditions people start getting frustrated and shower hate on them through their social media handles. The most common targets for these people are celebrities especially movie stars and sportspersons.
In one of such recent incidents, a man named Mohsin Talukder threatened to end the life of Bangladesh cricket Shakib Al Hasan. He posed the threat through a Facebook Live on Sunday. Shakib is reported to have inaugurated a Kali Puja in Kolkata on November 12. Talukder claimed that this has hurt “hurt Muslim sentiments” and he even threatened to “cut him to pieces with a chopper for blasphemy”. The place where Shakib was reported to have gone is the 59th Shyama Puja of “Amra Shobai Club” at Kankurgachi in East Kolkata.
The all-rounder however denied these reports of him inaugurating the puja and said he was only part of the program that followed. He also apologized for hurting the sentiments of his supporters and the people belonging to his religion.
“Media, social media everywhere it was flooded that I went to Kolkata to inaugurate a puja ceremony which actually was not the reason behind my visit and I did not inaugurate puja,” Shakib said in a Facebook Live.
“The puja was inaugurated by Firhad Hakim, mayor of Kolkata. In my invitation card it was clearly mentioned that I was not the chief guest for puja,” he said. “Being a practicing Muslim, I always try to follow religious customs. Please forgive me if I have done anything wrong,” he said.
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